Reducing Nonemergent Visits to the Emergency Department in a Veterans Affairs Multistate System.

Study Objective: The purpose of this quality improvement study was to reduce nonemergent visits to the emergency department attendance within a multistate Veterans Health Affairs network.

Methods: Telephone triage protocols were developed and implemented for registered nurse staff to triage selected calls to a same-day telephonic or video virtual visit with a provider (physician or nurse practitioner). Calls, registered nurse triage dispositions, and provider visit dispositions were tracked for 3 months.

Pressure Injury Documentation Practices in the Department of Veteran Affairs: A Quality Improvement Project.

Evidence suggests that inaccurate and incomplete pressure injury (PI) documentation threatens the validity of treatment and undermines policy and quality improvement. This quality improvement project sought to identify barriers and facilitators when conducting and documenting the daily comprehensive skin assessment in 31 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities. Evaluators in this 1-year, cross-sectional quality improvement project, using a qualitative approach, interviewed nurses of medical-surgical and critical care units.

Preventing Pressure Ulcers in the Veterans Health Administration Using a Virtual Breakthrough Series Collaborative.

The Veterans Health Administration implemented a Virtual Breakthrough Series to prevent pressure ulcers. The pressure ulcer rate decreased from 1.2 to 0.