Veterans Health Administration Mental Health Program Evaluation: Capstone Report

Abstract

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Key performance indicators for mental health and substance use disorders: a literature review and discussion paper

“…Similarly, the other mixed health care example, the HSE, has accessibility and appropriateness as their main focus areas for KPIs. The public health care examples of the NHS and VHA differ in their main performance metrics in that for the NHS, efficiency and accessibility are mainstays whereas the VHA is fairly balanced across all dimensions, but is missing KPIs for efficiency (Table 1); though some of the KPIs used by VHA may also infer efficiency (Watkins & Pincus, 2011). However, the provided -10 -definitions of those KPIs do not meet this study's criteria for being a KPI, which represents the efficiency domain as outlined in Table 3.…”

“…Establishing a collaborative process is integral in the development of KPIs as MESUD academics, clinicians, consumers and decisionmakers will differ in their opinion of what KPIs are of most importance (Waraich et -11 -al., 2010). The structured consensus is ultimately the most rigorous development method for KPIs; however, this, in itself, requires sufficient resources and infrastructure to execute, such that it is the least used development method for MESUD KPIs (Lauriks et al, 2012;Waraich et al, 2010;Watkins & Pincus, 2011).…”

“…Actively flexible policies and health care structures that enable accessible community-based health care, which are delivered through evidence-based integrated multidisciplinary approaches addressing the biological, psychological and social factors contributing to MESUDS, are becoming more widely reported (Government of Ireland, 2006;Health Canada, 2002;NHS Department of Health, 2012;Pawsey, Logan, & Castle, 2011;Watkins & Pincus, 2011). Furthermore, in order to maximize limited resources and address the gap between evidence-based best healthcare practices and the care that is actually received, health systems need to address the underdevelopment of their infrastructure, both at local and national levels, thus enabling measurement of system performance (Hermann et al, 2002;Institute of Medicine, 2001) using measures which are both valid and reliable (Hermann et al, 2000) .…”

“…Furthermore, in order to maximize limited resources and address the gap between evidence-based best healthcare practices and the care that is actually received, health systems need to address the underdevelopment of their infrastructure, both at local and national levels, thus enabling measurement of system performance (Hermann et al, 2002;Institute of Medicine, 2001) using measures which are both valid and reliable (Hermann et al, 2000) . Such performance measurement is likely to be integral to active evolution of a health system to meet the needs of its users, may form the foundation for accountability and provision of good quality care (Hermann et al, 2004;Pincus et al, 2007) and has contributed to the development, content and application of key performance indicators (KPIs) for MESUDS for several health systems internationally (Hermann et al, 2006;Watkins & Pincus, 2011).…”

Resources and Capabilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs to Provide Timely and Accessible Care to Veterans

“…Although not part of the systematic review because it was not published in the peerreviewed literature, an Altarum/RAND study of VA quality of care for mental health conditions (Sorbero et al, 2010;Watkins et al, 2011) showed that VA care performed significantly better than the private plans on assessment measures and medication-management measures. The private plans exhibited significantly higher rates of engagement for two measures related to treatment for substance use disorders.…”