Controlled Trial of Tele-Support and Education for Womens Health Care in CBOCs

Study Summary

VA community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) typically serve only a small number of women Veterans, and generally do not have the women's health care resources that are available in larger settings. Women Veterans using these sites for primary care must sometimes travel to other sites to receive women's health care. That can create travel burdens, reduce continuity of care, and negatively affect patient outcomes. To address this, VA is implementing a clinical operations innovation that supports women's primary care providers with a technology-based intervention that combines interactive communication with women's health specialists and ongoing education. This research study is evaluating the implementation and effects of this women's healthcare delivery innovation. Findings from this research will inform VA women's health clinical practice and education, and will advance science in delivering technology-supported non-face-to-face care that is applicable to other clinical conditions and patient populations.

Primary Outcome

Quality of care as defined by adherence to practice guidelines. This measure is the difference in the percent of applicable quality indicators for whom the guideline adherent action was performed by primary care providers at baseline versus after entering into the intervention.

Interventions

• OTHER Clinical innovation