Speakers
Steven Asch MD, MPH is the Deputy Associate Chief of Staff for Health Services Research at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, a health policy analyst at RAND and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His research applies quality measurement systems to ensure that patients get needed medical care, particularly in the areas of communicable disease and public health. Dr Asch has led several national projects developing broad-based quality measurement tools for veterans, Medicare beneficiaries, and the community. He also directs a multi-site center for quality improvement in HIV positive as part of the Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI). His educational efforts are focused on training physician fellows in health services research, and he serves as the director of the VA Los Angeles Health Services Research Fellowship and Associate Director of the UCLA RWJ Clinical Scholars Program. Dr. Asch is a practicing internist and palliative care physician and the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed articles.
Details
It is ironic that the most disintegrated health care sectors in the world that of the United States, has produced as one of its components one of the most integrated health delivery systems, the Veterans Health Administration (VA). Starting the late 1990’s the VA underwent a transformation that resulted in significant improvements in the quality of health care delivery. Components of this transformation include: 1) Routine and widespread performance measurement 2) Regional managerial accountability 3) Heavy use of information technology including clinical reminders and a fully integrated medical record 4) Researcher/administrator partnerships. Recent studies have shown these efforts to have produced quality performance that meets or exceeds that of the rest of the US health care system at a lower cost.