QUERI Highlights Implementation and Evaluation Science
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Tailoring Care to Veterans’ Life Journey

Many people join the military when they are young and vital, with little need for healthcare unless they get injured; however, as they enter middle age and older age, their healthcare needs increase. VA provides care along the continuum of life and the continuum of care. In partnership with multi-level stakeholders, QUERI is deploying and evaluating implementation and quality improvement strategies to optimize effective care for Veterans as they age. The QUERI centers focusing on this issue include the following.

The QUERI Center for Evaluating Patient-Centered Care (EPCC-VA) examines the implementation and impact of VA’s transformation to a Whole Health system of care that empowers and equips Veterans to take charge of their health and wellbeing.

• Principal Investigator: Barbara Bokhour, PhD
• Partner: VA’s Office of Patient-Centered Care & Cultural Transformation

Complementary and Integrative Health Evaluation Center (CIHEC) evaluates the implementation of evidence-based complementary and integrative health therapies – and the effectiveness of novel CIH therapies as non-pharmacological options for Veteran/employee health.

• Principal Investigators: Stephanie Taylor, PhD; A. Rani Elwy, PhD; and Steve Zeliadt, PhD
• Partner: VA’s Office of Patient-Centered Care & Cultural Transformation

Caregiver Support Partnered Evaluation Center (VA CARES) evaluates the impacts of the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers and the Program of General Caregiver Support Services.

• Principal Investigator: Courtney Van Houtven, PhD
• Partners: VA Caregiver Support Program and the Office of Care Management and Social Work

Evaluation of the National Implementation of the VA Diffusion of Excellence Initiative on Advance Care Planning via Group Visits (ACP-GV) QUERI seeks to evaluate and determine best practices to facilitate a nationwide spread of ACP-GV, which includes hosting discussions about advance care planning and advance directives among VHA users, thus far serving more than 32,000 Veterans.

• Principal Investigator: Monica Matthieu, PhD, LCSW
• Partner: VA’s Diffusion of Excellence

Function QUERI enhances VA’s capacity to rapidly adopt and sustain evidence-based practices that promote optimal Veteran function and independence. Thus far, Function QUERI has trained more than 821 VA employees and served over 5,088 Veterans and caregivers in these practices.

• Principal Investigators: Susan Hastings, MD; Kelli Allen, PhD; Courtney Van Houtven, PhD; and Virginia Wang, PhD
• Partners: VA Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service, VA Office of Geriatrics and Extended Care, VA Caregiver Support Program, VA Office of Voluntary Services, VA Diffusion of Excellence, and VISN 6 (Mid-Atlantic Healthcare Network)

Implementing the Age-Friendly Health System in VHA QUERI aims to improve safety and quality of care and promote well-being for older Veterans by making VISN 4 an “Age-Friendly Health System,” through the implementation of four evidence-based practices.

• Principal Investigators: Robert Burke, MD, MS; Judith Long, MD; Rachel Werner, MD, PhD; and Daniel Hall, MD, MDiv, MHSc
• Partners: VA’s Geriatrics and Extended Care National Office, National Surgical Program Office, and VISN 4

Preferences Elicited and Respected for Seriously Ill Veterans through Enhanced Decision-Making (PERSIVED) QUERI works to prevent unwanted, burdensome life-sustaining treatment by consistently eliciting preferences for care from seriously ill Veterans who are receiving home-based primary care or VA-paid community nursing home services.

• Principal Investigators: Cari Levy, MD, PhD; and Mary Ersek, PhD, RN
• Partners: VA National Center for Ethics in Healthcare, VA Office of Geriatrics and Extended Care, and VISNs 2, 4, 8, 10, and 19

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