VA compares favorably with private care

The Department of Veterans Affairs provides some of the highest quality health care available, and USA TODAY’s article, “Death rates, bedsores, ER wait times: Where every VA hospital lags or leads other medical care,” comparing VA emergency room wait times and patient satisfaction, is disappointing.

A 2018 Rand study, reviewing data from 2013 to 2016, found that the VA health care system “generally delivers higher-quality care than other health providers,” and a 2018 Dartmouth study found that VA hospitals outperform private hospitals in quality measures and patient safety indicators, in most markets. Additionally, a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that VA appointment wait times are shorter than those in the private sector in primary care and two of three specialty care areas. The JAMA study also found that access to care at VA health centers improved from 2014 to 2017 and patient satisfaction with VA appointment wait times is improving.

In other words, VA care is just as good — or better — than that available in the private sector. And VA is seeing more patients than ever before, more quickly than ever before, while veterans are more satisfied with wait times than they have been previously.

Robert Wilkie Secretary of Veterans Affairs Washington, D.C.