Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32454576›Full record

ArticleFederal practitioner : for the health care professionals of the VA, DoD, and PHS2020

Performance of the Veterans Choice Program for Improving Access to Colonoscopy at a Tertiary VA Facility.

Jeffrey M Dueker, Asif Khalid

Open access · greenAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC
In one paragraph

Article in Federal practitioner : for the health care professionals of the VA, DoD, and PHS, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
0.5field-weighted citation impact, top 34% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Impact of Retroactive Application of Updated Surveillance Guidelines on Endoscopy Center Capacity at a Large VA Health Care System.Federal practitioner : for the health care professionals of the VA, DoD, and PHS · 2025
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Jeffrey M Duekeris a Gastroenterologist and is the Section Chief of Gastroenterology at VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System in Pennsylvania. Jeffrey Dueker is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Asif Khalid is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Asif Khalidis a Gastroenterologist and is the Section Chief of Gastroenterology at VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System in Pennsylvania. Jeffrey Dueker is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Asif Khalid is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionThe Veterans Choice Program (VCP) was designed to provide a pathway for veterans to access health care in the community if wait times at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) were > 30 days. However, the performance of this program, in terms of timeliness, quality assurance, and overall utilization by veterans for colonoscopy is not well studied.

methodsWe reviewed records of veterans at VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System (VAPHS) who underwent VCP colonoscopy from June 2015 through March 2017. We compared the number of days from the scheduling encounter to the first available colonoscopy at VAPHS to the actual colonoscopy through the VCP. Additionally, we examined the availability of procedure and pathology results, documentation of quality metrics, and if clear follow-up recommendations were present in community care records. We then separately examined VCP utilization in a representative sample (5% margin of error, 95% CI) of all colonoscopy referrals through the VCP.

resultsDuring the study period 3,855 veterans were eligible for colonoscopy via the VCP, and 190 colonoscopies were performed through VCP. Records were absent for 29 exams (15.3%). There was no statistically significant difference for the number of days from a veteran's initially scheduled first-available colonoscopy at VAPHS when compared with the actual VCP colonoscopy (median 2 days earlier,

conclusionsColonoscopies referred through the VCP were not performed sooner in aggregate compared with the first available colonoscopy at VAPHS, although there was wide variability in wait times. We recommend additional mechanisms be put into place when outsourcing to community care: Ensure seamless and require prompt transfer of records back to the VA, require reporting of quality metrics standard at the VA for community care colonoscopies, and establish clinically meaningful wait-time thresholds for referral into the community, rather than static ones.

Identifiers

PMID32454576
PMCPMC7241610
OpenAlexW3030236960

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.