Does VA Health Care Measure up?

Nearly 25 years ago, a congressionally mandated study found that many components of the health care system of the Veterans Administration (now the Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA) were inefficient and often poor in quality.1 A blue-ribbon panel concluded that the system's principal resource, a loosely connected network of acute care hospitals, was poorly matched to the needs of the mostly elderly and chronically ill veterans it was designed to serve. The panel expressed little optimism about the system's capacity to improve and advised allowing the private sector to take over most of the VA's responsibilities. This recommendation was . . .