VA HOSPITAL SYSTEM

VA Hospital System



VA Hospital System

Introduction

Of the billions of dollars paid for long term care (LTC), most is spent for institutional services in nursing homes. Yet for every person in a nursing home, there are two equally disabled veterans living in the community who are cared for by family members and friends. Hence, more care comes from unpaid labor and acts of obligation and love than from patient fees or third-party payments. Although doctors, hospitals, nurses, drugs, and all the other elements of modern medicine are employed in LTC, they are actively involved in only a small portion of the care that patients receive. LTC isn't “medical” in the same way that most acute care is. The introduction of Medicaid in 1965 fueled the LTC market, and policy makers have been trying to deal with the spiraling LTC costs since then. Certain attempts, such as legislation limiting the construction of new nursing homes, have only served to increase demand and costs. The challenge of meeting both medical and social needs has left legislators uncertain about which aspects of care should be funded through social welfare programs and which should be funded as part of the health care system.

This paper discusses evaluates a VA hospital system (Veterans' Long Term Care Hospital) and analyzes how the system works and what type of improvements can be made to the system.

Discussion

Veterans Affairs offer a wide range of long-term care (LTC) to veterans. VA presents institutional long term care to US veterans through State Veteran Homes, Community Nursing Homes, adult day health care, VA Nursing Homes, and Domiciliaries.

Overview of the Veterans' Long Term Care Hospital (VLTCH)

The mission of VLTCH is to provide the best long-term care to our veterans. The number of elderly veterans in the United States rose rapidly in the years following World War II, from 10 million in 1940 to 17 million in 1965 and 35 million in 2002. This burgeoning group of elderly Americans is relatively healthy, thanks to years of good nutrition and sanitation, and it is relatively wealthy, thanks to pensions and years of saving. After the 1960s, a sizable portion of the population began to be able to look forward to living for many years after working, with no need to depend on their children for financial support. This emerging group of retirees constituted a distinct market. They wanted to enjoy their “golden years” and often looked to each other for social activity. Retirement communities sprang up in Florida, California, and Arizona that catered to this growing group of middle-class elderly veterans. Retirement communities were specially designed to appeal to the elderly, featuring single-story dwellings without steps, limited traffic, and social centers. This market response to the special needs of the elderly occurred without any reference to medicine or LTC. (Asch, 2004)

VLTCH patients constituted another small group within the elderly population that was destined to grow rapidly during the post-war era. The fraction of total health expenditures devoted to VLTC clinics, which was less than ...