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ARMED FORCES NEWS |
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A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that the Department of Veterans Affairs' shift from inpatient to outpatient care during the past decade has been efficient and safe. Survival rates among chronically ill veterans remained constant despite a sharp reduction in hospital-based care, according to the journal's Oct. 23 edition. Over the past eight years, VA has reorganized its health care system, closed hospital beds, expanded outpatient care and improved primary care. The journal article was based on a study by researchers at VA's Houston Center for Quality Care and Utilization Studies and Baylor College of Medicine who studied the records of 342,000 chronically ill veterans to track theirhealth care and survival between 1994 and 1998. Hospital stays fell by 50 percent and outpatient care increased moderately, while survival rates remained constant. |
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