Damron-Rodriguez JoAnn, White-Kazemipour Whitney, Washington Donna, Villa Valentine M, Dhanani Shawkat, Harada Nancy D
Veteran Administration Greater Los Angeles Health Care System, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656, USA.
Mil Med. 2004 Mar;169(3):243-50. doi: 10.7205/milmed.169.3.243.
Diverse veteran's perspectives on the accessibility and acceptability of the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) health services are presented.
The qualitative methodology uses 16 focus groups (N = 178) stratified by war cohort (World War II and Korean Conflict versus Vietnam War and Persian Gulf War) and four ethnic/racial categories (African American, Asian American, European American, Hispanic American).
Five themes emerged regarding veterans' health care expectations: (1) better information regarding available services, (2) sense of deserved benefits, (3) concern about welfare stigma, (4) importance of physician attentiveness, and (5) staff respect for patients as veterans. Although veterans' ethnic/racial backgrounds differentiated their military experiences, it was the informants' veteran identity that framed what they expected of VA health services.
Accessibility and acceptability of VA health care is related to veterans' perspectives of the nature of their entitlement to service. Provider education and customer service strategies should consider the identified factors to increase access to VA as well as improve veterans' acceptance of the care.
呈现退伍军人对退伍军人事务部（VA）医疗服务可及性和可接受性的不同观点。
定性研究方法采用了16个焦点小组（N = 178），按战争时期（二战和朝鲜战争与越南战争和海湾战争）以及四个种族/族裔类别（非裔美国人、亚裔美国人、欧裔美国人、西班牙裔美国人）进行分层。
出现了关于退伍军人医疗保健期望的五个主题：（1）关于可用服务的更好信息，（2）应得福利感，（3）对福利污名的担忧，（4）医生关注度的重要性，以及（5）工作人员对退伍军人患者的尊重。尽管退伍军人的种族/族裔背景使他们的军事经历有所不同，但正是受访者的退伍军人身份决定了他们对VA医疗服务的期望。
VA医疗保健的可及性和可接受性与退伍军人对其应享服务性质的看法有关。提供者教育和客户服务策略应考虑已确定的因素，以增加获得VA医疗服务的机会，并提高退伍军人对医疗服务的接受度。
