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. 2024 Feb;81(1):58-67.
doi: 10.1177/10775587231194681. Epub 2023 Sep 7.

Hospital and Patient Factors Affecting Veterans' Hospital Choice

Jean Yoon  1   2 , Michael K Ong  3   4   5 , Megan E Vanneman  6   7 , Yue Zhang  6   7 , Matthew P Dizon  1   8 , Ciaran S Phibbs  1   8
Affiliations

Hospital and Patient Factors Affecting Veterans' Hospital Choice

Jean Yoon et al. Med Care Res Rev. 2024 Feb.

Abstract

Veterans enrolled in the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system gained greater access to non-VA care beginning in 2014. We examined hospital and Veteran characteristics associated with hospital choice. We conducted a longitudinal study of elective hospitalizations 2011 to 2017 in 11 states and modeled patients' choice of VA hospital, large non-VA hospital, or small non-VA hospital in conditional logit models. Patients had higher odds of choosing a hospital with an academic affiliation, better patient experience rating, location closer to them, and a more common hospital type. Patients who were male, racial/ethnic minorities, had higher VA enrollment priority, and had a mental health comorbidity were more likely than other patients to choose a VA hospital than a non-VA hospital. Our findings suggest that patients respond to certain hospital attributes. VA hospitals may need to maintain or achieve high levels of quality and patient experience to attract or retain patients in the future.

Keywords: Veteran; academic; hospital; patient experience.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

    1. Access, Veterans Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014, Pub. L. No. 113-146, 128 Stat 1754, (2014).
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