The Opportunity

It is essential for Veterans to have timely access to primary care and mental health services, especially given the disproportionate impact of suicidality, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other life-threatening conditions on Veterans. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), specifically the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), has taken concrete and important steps to improve Veterans’ ability to access same-day primary care and mental health services. Under the recommendation of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), VA intends to develop performance goals and related performance measures to assess the impact of its same-day services.

About the Project

As a response to the GAO recommendation, VA engaged with Atlas Research and the National Quality Forum (NQF) to develop the Same-Day Access for Primary Care and Mental Health Services Measurement Framework. The goal is to identify and promote effective, prioritized performance measurement and quality improvement strategies, and to develop and recommend a quality measurement framework for use at VA. To commence this work, Atlas Research and NQF convened two multistakeholder Technical Expert Panels (TEPs) focused on Primary Care and Mental Health to provide input and guide the creation of the framework.

The project objectives are to:

• engage experts to assess issues and identify recommendations related to the measurement of Veterans’ same-day access to services,
• develop an Environmental Scan Report that reviews the current landscape of quality measurement focused on same-day services, and
• develop a consensus-based Measurement Framework Report to conceptualize measurement strategies related to the quality of same-day services for primary care and mental health.

Public Feedback Opportunity

NQF is soliciting public comment on the draft measurement framework report (PDF), including:

• General comments
• Feedback on the domains and subdomains of the framework
• Input on current VA measures that would be appropriate for the framework subdomains

Comments are due by Monday, February 15, 2020 at 6:00pm ET. | Submit Comment

Contact Information

For more information, contact the Same Day Access project team at samedayaccess@qualityforum.org.