Hewitt Austin, Fritz Melanie, Sanger Cristina B
Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin.
Department of Surgery, William S. Middleton Memorial Veteran's Hospital, Madison, Wisconsin.
Clin Colon Rectal Surg. 2024 May 10;38(1):19-25. doi: 10.1055/s-0044-1786388. eCollection 2025 Jan.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the largest provider of integrated health care services in the United States and its mission is to honor veterans by providing timely, effective, and high-quality health care that improves individuals' health and functionality. The VA provides comprehensive primary and specialty care, including colorectal surgery services, to eligible veterans who suffer from a disproportionately high burden of medical comorbidities and often belong to vulnerable populations, including individuals of low socioeconomic status, those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning, racial minorities, and those suffering from severe mental health illness. There are many challenges to caring for a population of veterans with benign and malignant colorectal disease due to both patient and system level factors. Despite these challenges, the VA has demonstrated a commitment to ensuring culturally competent, equitable, and inclusive care and to conducting research that establishes evidence-based best practices in the management of colorectal diseases. These efforts have led to outcomes for patients undergoing care for colorectal diseases within the VA that are par with or better than civilian outcomes. The VA is uniquely positioned on a system level to provide nationwide efforts that improve care delivery and serve those who served.
美国退伍军人事务部（VA）是美国最大的综合医疗服务提供商，其使命是通过提供及时、有效和高质量的医疗服务来改善个人健康和功能，从而表彰退伍军人。VA为符合条件的退伍军人提供全面的初级和专科护理，包括结直肠手术服务，这些退伍军人患有不成比例的高负担医疗合并症，且往往属于弱势群体，包括社会经济地位低的人、认同自己为女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋、跨性别和疑问性别的人、少数族裔以及患有严重精神疾病的人。由于患者和系统层面的因素，照顾患有良性和恶性结直肠疾病的退伍军人面临诸多挑战。尽管存在这些挑战，VA仍致力于确保提供具有文化能力、公平和包容的护理，并开展研究以确立结直肠疾病管理中基于证据的最佳实践。这些努力使VA内接受结直肠疾病护理的患者的治疗结果与 civilian 结果相当或更好。VA在系统层面具有独特地位，能够在全国范围内努力改善护理服务，并为那些曾服役的人提供服务。
