Relationship between clinical conditions and use of Veterans Affairs health care among Medicare-enrolled veterans.

Objective: To determine how reliance on Veterans Affairs (VA) for medical care among veterans enrolled in Medicare is affected by medical conditions, access, and patient characteristics.

Data Sources/study Setting: Department of Veterans Affairs.

Study Design: We examined reliance on the VA for inpatient, outpatient, and overall medical care among all VA users in fiscal years 2003 and 2004 who were also enrolled in Medicare.

Method to develop health care peer groups for quality and financial comparisons across hospitals.

Objective: To develop and explore the characteristics of a novel "nearest neighbor" methodology for creating peer groups for health care facilities.

Data Sources: Data were obtained from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) databases. STATISTICAL METHODS AND FINDINGS: Peer groups are developed by first calculating the multidimensional Euclidean distance between each of 133 VA medical centers based on 16 facility characteristics.