Research Brief
A Shared Definition of High-Quality Care Can Help Veterans Combat Invisible Wounds
Oct 22, 2020
Proposed Definition and Next Steps for the Veteran Wellness Alliance
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Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) — sometimes referred to as "invisible wounds" — can have significant negative effects on veterans' mental and physical health, yet many veterans have difficulty accessing high-quality care for these conditions. The Veteran Wellness Alliance, an initiative of the George W. Bush Institute, is a coalition of veteran peer network and clinical provider organizations that aims to improve access to high-quality care for post-9/11 veterans, specifically those with PTSD and TBI. Although the Veteran Wellness Alliance and other veteran-serving organizations have a common goal to improve access to high-quality care for invisible wounds, there has been no shared definition of high-quality care to guide these improvement efforts. RAND researchers conducted a literature review and interviews with Veteran Wellness Alliance partner organizations to identify standards for high-quality care, develop an initial definition, and make recommendations for implementing, refining, and disseminating the definition and its associated metrics.
Establishing a clear standard for high-quality care will help the Veteran Wellness Alliance offer meaningful guidance to its clinical partners and peer networks and will guide the broader veteran-serving community in providing the highest level of support for post-9/11 veterans who are living with the effects of these conditions.
This research was funded by the George W. Bush Institute and carried out within the Quality Measurement and Improvement Program in RAND Health Care.
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