IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In the United States there are currently about 20 million veterans, many still struggling with the wounds of war long after they’ve returned to civilian life. To help address this challenge, Vizient has published, “Trends in Demographic Data Collection and Use in Healthcare: A Field Guide for Improving Care for Veterans.” The field guide focuses on the collection and use of veteran status while highlighting Lehigh Valley Health Network and Warrior Centric Health (WCH), two organizations committed to providing better care and services to those who served our country.
“Health care staff and providers are often encouraged to treat all patients equally, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation status and other social identifiers,” said Cindy Abel, MSN, RN, CEN, vice president, performance improvement collaboratives at Vizient. “However, trends in demographic data collection and use are revealing that unique patient populations have unique needs.” A one-size-fits-all approach to health care leaves vulnerable patient groups, such as veterans, overlooked and underserved.
The overarching goal of collecting veteran status is to use the data to better understand and serve the veteran-patient population. One point that WCH emphasizes is the importance of making veteran status accessible to providers at the point of care, so they can integrate it into their patient assessments. The field guide outlines the unique health care needs of veterans and the health disparities they face along with four best practices for collecting data about veterans.
Vizient will host a public webinar on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 11 a.m. CST titled “Improving Care for Veterans” where these issues will be discussed. Registration is open now.
“This field guide is part of a series focused on demographic data collection and use within health care systems, produced in partnership with MiH,” said Kellie Goodson, MS, CPXP, director, HIIN and TCPI delivery at Vizient. Increasingly, health systems are collecting race, ethnicity and language (REAL) demographics not only to fulfill various data collection requirements, but also to use the data to improve access, services, care quality and research.
“Vizient plans to publish additional guides including a field guide for serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients next month,” adds Goodson.
About Vizient, Inc.
Vizient, Inc., the largest member-driven health care performance improvement company in the country, provides innovative data-driven solutions, expertise and collaborative opportunities that lead to improved patient outcomes and lower costs. Vizient’s diverse membership and customer base includes academic medical centers, pediatric facilities, community hospitals, integrated health delivery networks and non-acute health care providers and represents approximately $100 billion in annual purchasing volume. The Vizient brand identity represents the integration of VHA Inc., University HealthSystem Consortium and Novation, which combined in 2015, as well as the recently acquired MedAssets’ Spend and Clinical Resource Management (SCM) segment, which includes Sg2. In 2018, Vizient again received a World’s Most Ethical Company designation from the Ethisphere Institute. Vizient’s headquarters are in Irving, Texas, with locations in Chicago and other cities across the United States. Please visit www.vizientinc.com as well as our newsroom, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube pages for more information about the company.
