Facilitators and barriers to the Lean Enterprise Transformation program at the Veterans Health Administration.

Background: The Veterans Health Administration piloted a nationwide Lean Enterprise Transformation program to optimize delivery of services to patients for high value care.

Purpose: Barriers and facilitators to Lean implementation were evaluated.

Methods: Guided by the Lean Enterprise Transformation evaluation model, 268 interviews were conducted, with stakeholders across 10 Veterans Health Administration medical centers.

Rethinking Violence Prevention in Rural and Underserved Communities: How Veteran Peer Support Groups Help Participants Deal with Sequelae from Violent Traumatic Experiences.

Purpose: Access to mental health care and programs that address violence prevention can be a challenge for veterans residing in rural and underserved areas. A growing number of trauma-affected veterans are now returning to rural areas upon completion of military service. The Palo Alto VA Health Care System has piloted a program known as the Peer Support Program (PSP) where certified peer support specialists hold group sessions for their fellow veterans in remote, community-based outpatient clinics.

Peer support in an outpatient program for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder: Translating participant experiences into a recovery model.

Veterans returning from recent conflicts present with increased rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and veterans from prior service eras continue to seek trauma-based services. Peer support for veterans with PTSD has the potential to resolve ongoing challenges in access and engagement in mental health care. Assessing the value of peer support services requires a thorough understanding of the expected role and the empirical mechanisms of peer support participation in PTSD recovery.

The Work Experiences of Community Health Professionals: Implications for the Continued Rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

Objective: State health reform (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [ACA]) policies may impact the work experiences of community health professionals. We examine the extent to which community health professional work experiences differ depending on state Medicaid expansion and health insurance exchange policies.

Design: Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS) (2014) responses from public health nurses, community health workers, health educators, and other public health professionals were merged with state ACA Medicaid expansion and health insurance exchange operations data.

HEALTH INSURANCE INFORMATION-SEEKING BEHAVIORS AMONG INTERNET USERS: AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS TO INFORM POLICIES.

The purpose of this study was to explore characteristics of Internet users who seek health insurance information online, as well as factors affecting their behaviors in seeking health insurance information. Secondary data analysis was conducted using data from the 2012 Pew Internet Health Tracking Survey. Of 2,305 Internet user adults, only 29% were seeking health insurance information online.