QUERI – Quality Enhancement Research Initiative

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Center for the Evaluation of Enterprise-Wide Initiatives

Identifying best practices for national programs serving rural Veterans

Iowa City, IA

Background

In 2007, Congress established the VA Office of Rural Health (ORH) to conduct research and promote programs that improve the health and wellbeing of the ~5 million Veterans who live in rural areas across the United States. 1 ORH supports broad-ranging programs addressing the unique needs of Veterans living in rural areas and VA priorities, including enhancing access to primary and specialty care and mental health services, care coordination, workforce training and education, and IT modernization. ORH sponsors 55 enterprise-wide initiatives (EWIs), led by other VA program offices, to implement and evaluate programs with the potential for national impact. To optimize these efforts and promote the sustainability of the EWIs, ORH is partnering with QUERI to conduct a rigorous evaluation of the EWIs.

Goals

In partnership with ORH, the Center for the Evaluation of Enterprise-Wide Initiatives (CEEWI) is conducting a comprehensive review of ORH’s enterprise-wide initiatives to identify best practices and strategies for enhancing the impact of the EWIs to improve the quality and safety of care delivered to Veterans in rural areas.

As part of this evaluation, CEEWI will:

  • Standardize the EWI annual evaluation report
  • Integrate a comprehensive conceptual framework, RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance), into EWI planning, implementation, and evaluation
  • Provide training and consultation to program offices and evaluators
  • Assess planning and implementation strategies that lead to EWI sustainment
  • Share EWI best practices across the ORH community
Enterprise-Wide QUERI

Impact

The partnership between QUERI and VA’s Office of Rural Health will improve ORH’s national evaluation program to systematically determine implementation strategies and best practices for the promotion, spread, and sustainability of Enterprise Wide Initiatives. Through these efforts, more rural Veterans and VA staff who serve them will have access to proven, high-quality programs.   

Principal Investigator: Heather Reisinger, PhD, HSR&D’s Center for Access and Delivery Research and Evaluation (CADRE), Iowa City, IA

Partner: VA’s Office of Rural Health (ORH)

  1. Veterans in Rural American: 2011-2015. United States Census Bureau.