The Primary Care Analytics Team: Integrating research and clinical care within the Veterans Health Administration Office of Primary Care.

By designing and evaluating health system improvements and providing evidence to clinical decision-makers, embedded researchers are a critical part of a Learning Health System (LHS). In this article, we describe the evolution and mission of the Primary Care Analytics Team (PCAT), an integrated research team within the Veterans Health Administration Office of Primary Care. We discuss challenges and strategies for success in working with clinical operations partners and provide recommendations for other Learning Health Systems units embedded in large integrated health care organizations.

The impact of survey nonresponse on estimates of healthcare employee burnout.

Accurate estimates of burnout prevalence are critical for workforce planning. We assessed survey nonresponse bias and its impact on burnout estimates by linking 27,226 primary care employees to administrative data, categorized by whether they responded to a 2016 workforce survey (19.2% response).

Mortality Among Veterans with Major Mental Illnesses Seen in Primary Care: Results of a National Study of Veteran Deaths.

Background: Premature mortality observed among the mentally ill is largely attributable to chronic illnesses. Veterans seen within Veterans Affairs (VA) have a higher prevalence of mental illness than the general population but there is limited investigation into the common causes of death of Veterans with mental illnesses.

Objective: To characterize the life expectancy of mentally ill Veterans seen in VA primary care, and to determine the most death rates of combinations of mental illnesses.

Clinical Care Quality Among Veterans Health Administration Patients With Mental Illness Following Medical Home Implementation.

Objective: This study sought to compare quality of care following medical home implementation among Veterans Health Administration (VHA) primary care patients with and without mental illness.

Methods: VHA primary care patients seen between April 2010 and March 2013 whose medical records were reviewed by the VHA External Peer Review Program were identified. The proportion of patients meeting quality indicators in each mental illness group (depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, substance use disorder, serious mental illness, and any mental illness) was compared with the proportion of patients without mental illness.

Comparing Preventable Hospitalizations Among Veterans With and Without Mental Illnesses Before and After Implementation of PACT.

Objectives: The authors examined whether the rate of preventable hospitalizations among veterans with mental illness changed after implementation of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) primary care medical home-Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACT).

Methods: A 12-year retrospective cohort analysis was conducted of data from 9,206,017 veterans seen in 942 VA primary care clinics between October 2003 and March 2015. Preventable hospitalizations were those related to ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (ACSCs), identified with ICD-9 codes.

Clinical Quality and the Patient-Centered Medical Home.

This study assess the association between the elements of the patient-centered medical home model and clinical quality in the Veterans Health Administration’s Patient Aligned Care Team program.

The Vietnam Era Twin Registry: a quarter century of progress.

Now celebrating its 26th year of existence, the Vietnam Era Twin Registry continues to be one of the largest national samples of adult twins in the United States. The Registry twin member population is composed of 7,369 US male-male twin pair Veterans (14,738 total individuals) who served on active duty in the military during the Vietnam conflict (1964-1975). The Registry also maintains a register, data repository, and a biospecimen repository.