Research Highlights
CBOCs Perform Well in Evaluation Project
Taken from the Veterans Health Administration Highlights dated July 26, 2002
Five studies by VA researchers find that VA’s Community-Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) appear to be a valid approach to providing high-quality primary care to veterans. The studies, published in the July issue of Medical Care, found that CBOCs performed as well as parent VA medical centers on most measures, including access, utilization, quality and perceptions of care. CBOCs appeared to have lower specialty and total costs per patient. They decreased use of specialty care services while improving access to primary care. Based on patient perceptions, performance of CBOCs exceeded that of medical centers in seven of eight measures (including access/timeliness of care and waiting times.
The five studies were part of the CBOC Performance Evaluation Project, supported by the Office of Research and Development, Health Services Research and Development Service (HSR&D). Parts of the project examined data from up to 139 CBOCs in operation in 1998. As of mid-2002, VA had 366 CBOCs in operation. The project involved researchers at three HSR&D centers of excellence—in Minneapolis, Seattle and Little Rock—and the HSR&D Management Decision and Research Center in Boston.