VA Announces Aggressive New Approach to Produce Rapid Improvements in VA Medical Centers

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced steps that it is taking as part of an aggressive new approach to produce rapid improvements at VA’s low-performing medical facilities nationwide (1). VA defines its low-performing facilities as those medical centers that receive the lowest score in its Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning (SAIL) star rating system, or a one-star rating out of five. The SAIL star rating was initiated in 2016 and uses a variety of measures including mortality, length of hospital stay, readmission rates, hospital complications, physician productivity and efficiency. A complete listing of the VA facilities, their star ratings and the metrics used to determine the ratings is available through the end of fiscal year 2017 (2). Based on the latest ratings, the VA currently has 15 one-star facilities including Denver, Loma Linda, and Phoenix in the Southwest (Table 1).  

Table 1. VA facilities with one-star ratings (1).

1. Big Spring (Texas)
2. Denver (Colorado)
3. Dublin (Georgia)
4. El Paso (Texas)
5. Jackson, (Mississippi)
6. Hampton (Virginia)
7. Harlingen (Texas)
8. Loma Linda (California)
9. Memphis (Tennessee)
10. Murfreesboro (Tennessee)
11. Nashville (Tennessee)
12. Phoenix (Arizona)
13. Roseburg (Oregon)
14. Walla Walla (Washington).
15. Washington (DC)

The steps VA is taking to produce rapid improvements at its low-performing facilities include (Table 2):

Table 2. VA steps to produce rapid improvements at low-performing facilities (1).

1. Central, national accountable leadership – VA has designated Dr. Peter Almenoff, Director of VA’s Office of Reporting, Analytics, Performance, Improvement and Deployment (RAPID) Healthcare Improvement Center, to oversee improvement at each of the centers.
2. Comprehensive analysis and identification of improvement targets – VA is employing a new initiative, known as Strategic Action Transformation (STAT), that uses a rigorous and formal approach based on clinical performance indicators to identify vulnerabilities in each low-performing facility and set specific targets for improvement.
3. Provision of national resources for improvement – VA’s RAPID team of experts will use sophisticated statistical tools to track the progress of improvement against these targets, and, where warranted, will dispatch a team of expert improvement coaches quickly to the medical centers to assist them in meeting the goals.
4. Accountability for results –VA’s Central Office will review each of the facilities quarterly, and if the facilities fail to make rapid substantial progress in their improvement plan, VA leadership will take prompt action, including changing the leadership of the medical center.

VA secretary David Shulkin stated that “President Trump has made it clear that our Veterans deserve only the best when it comes to their healthcare, and that’s why we are focusing on improving our lowest performing facilities nationwide” (1). The VA recently removed the Roseburg Oregon VA Medical Center director who was accused of manipulating hospital admissions to improve the hospital’s rating (3). Almenoff, the overseer of improvement, was transferred from his position as the VA Integrated Network 15 director in 2008 when the Marion VA came under fire for substandard care raising concerns from several Illinois legislators, including the then junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama (4).

A major hurdle will be for the VA to hire sufficient staff to improve care. As of the end of June, the VA reported 35,554 job vacancies system-wide, and VA Secretary David Shulkin has cited challenges with hiring doctors and nurses, particularly mental health care professionals (5). The agency set a goal to hire 1,000 mental health care workers in 2017. The VA hired 900 last year, but lost 945. The Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014 appropriated several billion dollars to the VA but this apparently did not lead to hiring of sufficient healthcare providers.

Richard A. Robbins, MD

Editor, SWJPCC

References

1. VA Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs. VA announces aggressive new approach for low-performing medical centers. February 1, 2018. Available at: https://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=4004 (accessed 2/14/18).
2. US Department of Veterans Affairs. Quality care. Available at: https://www.va.gov/QUALITYOFCARE/measure-up/Strategic_Analytics_for_Improvement_and_Learning_SAIL.asp (accessed 2/14/18).
3. Phillips D. Director of veterans hospital accused of manipulating ratings is replaced. New York Times. February 1, 2018. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/us/veterans-roseburg-director.html (accessed 2/14/18).
4. Durbin D, Obama B, Costello J, Shimkus J. Letter to The Honorable James B. Peake, M.D., Secretary of Veterans' Affairs. July 23, 2008. Available at: https://votesmart.org/public-statement/363179/letter-to-the-honorable-james-b-peake-md-secretary-of-veterans-affairs?flavour=mobile&utm_source=votesmart&utm_medium=mobile-link&utm_campaign=flavourswitch#.WoR3Dq6nGUk (accessed 2/14/18).
5. Wentling N. Federal unions march on VA headquarters to protest staffing shortages. Stars and Stripes. February 13, 2018. Available at: https://www.stripes.com/federal-unions-march-on-va-headquarters-to-protest-staffing-shortages-1.511543 (accessed 2/14/18).

Cite as: Robbins RA. VA announces aggressive new approach to produce rapid improvements in VA medical centers. Southwest J Pulm Crit Care. 2018;16(2):91-3. doi: https://doi.org/10.13175/swjpcc034-18 PDF

University of Arizona-Phoenix Receives Full Accreditation

University of Arizona (UA) officials announced yesterday that the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix, which was originally a branch of the UA-Tucson medical school, was granted full accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) (1). The College of Medicine-Phoenix was created 10 years ago. In 2012, the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix received “preliminary” accreditation with the LCME, then “provisional” accreditation in 2015 and now full accreditation.

To date, the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix has graduated 354 physicians, with classes of about 80 students per year. One year ago this month, the Arizona Medical Association asked for an investigation after a half-dozen of the Phoenix medical school’s top leaders left for positions out of state. Among those departures was the school’s dean, Dr. Stuart D. Flynn. Dr. Kenneth Ramos served as interim dean and helped lead the Phoenix medical school through the accreditation. Dr. Guy Reed from Tennessee was recently hired as the school’s new dean and assumes his duties in July.

There are now five medical schools in Arizona: the two UA medical schools; the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, which is opening its Arizona campus in Scottsdale this summer; and Midwestern University and A.T. Still University, which both operate osteopathic medical schools in the Phoenix area. A sixth medical school, Omaha-based Creighton University School of Medicine, has medical students doing third- and fourth-year rotations in Arizona.

Richard A. Robbins, MD

Editor, SWJPCC

Reference

1. Innes S. University of Arizona's Phoenix medical school receives full accreditation. Arizona Star. June 14, 2017. Available at: http://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/university-of-arizona-s-phoenix-medical-school-receives-full-accreditation/article_64a1da80-1866-5a51-a062-7cc04ecd261d.html (accessed 6/15/17).

Cite as: Robbins RA. University of Arizona-Phoenix receives full accreditation. Southwest J Pulm Crit Care. 2017;14(6):311. doi: https://doi.org/10.13175/swjpcc077-17 PDF 

Knox Named Phoenix Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs

Dr. Kenneth S. Knox

The University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix has announced the appointment of nationally recognized physician-scientist Kenneth S. Knox, MD, as the associate dean of faculty affairs. Dr. Knox who has been at the University of Arizona-Tucson since 2008, will oversee the Faculty Affairs Office whose charge is to promote an engaged, diverse community of faculty and scholars that sustain a culture of engagement, professionalism and inclusion. He also will serve as director of research at the Banner Lung Institute.

Dr. Knox is a pulmonologist known for his research in sarcoidosis, fungal diagnostics and immunologic lung disease. His work includes developing treatments for HIV, AIDS and valley fever. The division chief of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine in Tucson, Knox was responsible for dramatic growth. His accomplishments include increasing the number of clinical and basic science faculty from five to 30 and fellowship trainings from six to 20, rekindling the sleep program, establishing a section of allergy and revamping the teaching model in the intensive care unit. He also served as vice chair for education in the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Knox is co-principal investigator on the Arizona portion of a $9.7 million National Institutes of Health-funded clinical trial to test the use of fluconazole as an early treatment for valley fever. Additional grants for more than $6 million have been submitted for efforts to develop a valley fever vaccine. He has received continuous funding since 2001 for his research on the use of bronchoalveolar lavage for immunodiagnostics and lung immunity. He is NIH-funded to perform longitudinal translational studies correlating immunological findings and the lung microbiome with clinical disease in HIV as his lab seeks to understand the role of pulmonary inflammation in the development of HIV-related lung diseases.

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Dr. Knox graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He completed his medical degree and residency training in Internal Medicine at Ohio State University and a fellowship in Pulmonary/Critical Care/Sleep Medicine at Indiana University where he remained on faculty for eight years, serving as educational director and director of the immunologic lung disease program before coming to Tucson. Dr. Knox is an associate editor of the SWJPCC and has edited the highly successful “Medical Image of the Week” section since its inception.

Richard A. Robbins, MD
Editor, SWJPCC

Cite as: Robbins RA. Knox named Phoenix associate dean of faculty affairs. Southwest J Pulm Crit Care. 2016;13(6):311-2. doi: https://doi.org/10.13175/swjpcc141-16 PDF

Rating the VA Hospitals

USA Today is listing the star rating system for the Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers based on the quality of care. The website has a link that allows searches for individual medical centers. The ratings have been done for years but the VA has refused to release the ratings saying they are meant for internal use only.

The top-rated hospitals received a 5 and the lowest a 1. According to the star ratings the best hospitals are in the Northeast and upper Midwest.  In the Southwest the ratings are not so good with the top-rated hospital Palo Alto and the lowest a tie between Phoenix and Albuquerque (Table 1).

Table 1. Southwest VA medical center star compare VA hospitals ratings.

Quality can be difficult to measure and it is not clear what metrics were used in the VA ratings. For this reason, the VA star ratings were compared to another hospital rating service Compare VA Hospitals (2). This scale uses a 1-100 scale with 100 being the best. In this scale the Palo Alto turned out to be the best in the country with Phoenix and the VA being more in the middle of the pack. There was no correlation between the ratings (r=0.2386, p>0.05). This is consistent with a previous publication in the SWJPCC which showed no or little correlation between the various hospital ratings.

The lack of correlation between rankings and not knowing the metrics which determine the rankings suggest that the VA is right, the rankings should remain for an internal use rather than adding to the confusion already generated by the various hospital rankings.

Richard A. Robbins, MD

Editor, SWJPCC

References

1. Slack D. Exclusive: Internal documents detail secret VA quality ratings. USA Today. December 7, 2016. Available at: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/12/07/internal-report-details-secret-quality-ratings-veterans/94811922/ (accessed 12/14/16).
2. Health Grove by Graphiq. Compare VA hospitals. Available at: http://va-hospitals.healthgrove.com/ (accessed 12/14/16).
3. Robbins RA, Gerkin RD. A comparison between hospital rankings and outcomes data. Southwest J Pulm Crit Care. 2013;7(3):196-203. [CrossRef]

Cite as: Robbins RA. Rating the VA hospitals. Southwest J Pulm Crit Care. 2016;13(6):309-10. doi: https://doi.org/10.13175/swjpcc138-16 PDF