Rehabilitation medicine within the Veterans Administration: report of a survey.

The health care delivery system of the Veterans Administration (VA) represents the largest single group of physicians practicing physical medicine and rehabilitation. The long-term needs of the aged, often disabled, and poor veterans of America's wars suggest that rehabilitation should be a high priority within the VA system. Yet, Max Cleland, former VA Administrator, and a VA Task Force on Rehabilitation have indicated that operational performance falls short of promises and that programs are fragmented and uncoordinated, with minimal research production. The results are reported of a 17-page questionnaire sent to the 273 full- and part-time physicians in Rehabilitation Medicine Services (RMS) in an attempt to determine the state of rehabilitation medicine in clinical practice, teaching, education, publishing and research.