Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government
Veterans Benefits and Health Care About VA Find a VA Location

Quality Enhancement Research Initiative

QUERI E-news
Winter 2024

» Table of Contents


QUERI Priorities and New Initiatives

In the fall, we kicked off our 7th annual QUERI priority-setting process, which is featured in the VA 2022-28 Strategic Plan, by collecting priority nominations from national, regional, and facility leaders across VA. Top priorities identified by these multilevel health system leaders were presented to national VA strategic and policy leadership groups for further feedback and concurrence. The finalized FY24 QUERI priorities align with current VA priorities, Agency Priority Goals, and VHA’s Long Range Plan. As next steps, QUERI is releasing calls for proposals to help address these priorities [e.g., QUERI’s Request for Applications (RFAs), Rapid Response Team mechanism] and working closely with the VHA Evidence-based Policy Subcommittee to identify enterprise-wide evaluations aligned with these priorities.


FY24 QUERI Priorities:

  1. Hire faster and more competitively: improve workforce recruitment, onboarding, and retention of VA employees and trainees.
  2. Connect Veterans to the soonest and best care: reduce direct care wait times and community care appointment scheduling times by improving clinical availability and scheduling.
  3. Promote a culture of safety, learning, and knowledge translation: implement and evaluate programs focused on innovation, psychological safety, zero harm, and manager/leader training.
  4. Prevent Veteran suicide: prevent Veteran suicide using a public health approach (e.g., outside the clinic walls, partnerships with community service organizations).
  5. Serve Veterans with military and environmental exposures: improve quality of care, including the identification and management of symptoms among Veterans with military and environmental exposures.
  6. Reduce Veteran homelessness: ensure more at-risk and underserved Veterans receive early interventions, partnerships, and supportive services to avoid homelessness.

Last year, QUERI launched 21 national evaluations to support VA national and VISN leaders in rolling out programs and polices addressing priorities identified in FY23, including employee burnout and well-being (e.g., REBOOT: Chief Wellness Officers, TMS education and training action, HR policies/flexibilities), military exposures and PACT Act, mental health and suicide prevention, homelessness, lung cancer screening, pain/opioid use disorder, clinical efficiency, access, aging, and intimate partner violence. In addition, QUERI’s Partnered Evidence-based Policy Resource Center (PEPReC) is working with VA’s Office of Human Resources and Administration to implement Sections 103 and 104 of the PACT Act, the development of facility- and specialty-level population-based workforce guidelines. In FY23, PEPReC helped create primary care guidelines and vetted them with local and national leadership. In FY24 and beyond, PEPReC will continue this primary care work and expand that to specialty care and mental healthcare.

« Previous || » Next