Friday, June 20, 2008
Are we doing right by our women warriors?
Now THIS is how to do journalism.
(I won't quote it, because the Asinine Press is run by mental midgets who bite the hand that feeds them. Just read the report.)
Takeaways: The VA health care system has not been able to keep up with the influx of women veterans, and has not upgraded its facilities with equipment for female health care needs, such as mammograms, along with those stirrup thingies, I guess. At one third of VA facilities, the quality of care offered women was not up to the standard offered men (though I don't know how they'd figure that. It seems that they would have equal care, except that certain OBGYN and breast care services and the like are not offered. (Although if a lot of clinics have a proctologist on staff but no access to OBGYN care, we'd have an equality of access problem.)
BUT... and here's an example of how the Asinine Press's editors will lie with a headline...
If you read the actual article, it's overall quite positive. The VA has made great strides in upgrading care for women already, and has demonstrated better surgical results and mortality than women who receive care privately or under the Medicare Advantage program. (I have statistical reservations about this...unless they controlled for age, which will skew much younger among female veterans, I'm not sure this is meaningful.)
Overall quality of care is good, according to the Asinine Press, when compared to commonly accepted medical standards. It would seem to me that making further improvements in the quality of care for our sisters would be a fairly simple matter of outreach to qualified staff, creative contracting arrangements with local specialists, and a modest investment in stirrups and whatever else those people use.
Splash, out
Jason
(Hat tip: Followed a link suggested by a CBS producer. The report he was pitching was too insipid to waste your time with. But this one was good. Eric, if you're reading this, more as well-researched and reported as this one, please! I'll link to them every time!)
(I won't quote it, because the Asinine Press is run by mental midgets who bite the hand that feeds them. Just read the report.)
Takeaways: The VA health care system has not been able to keep up with the influx of women veterans, and has not upgraded its facilities with equipment for female health care needs, such as mammograms, along with those stirrup thingies, I guess. At one third of VA facilities, the quality of care offered women was not up to the standard offered men (though I don't know how they'd figure that. It seems that they would have equal care, except that certain OBGYN and breast care services and the like are not offered. (Although if a lot of clinics have a proctologist on staff but no access to OBGYN care, we'd have an equality of access problem.)
BUT... and here's an example of how the Asinine Press's editors will lie with a headline...
If you read the actual article, it's overall quite positive. The VA has made great strides in upgrading care for women already, and has demonstrated better surgical results and mortality than women who receive care privately or under the Medicare Advantage program. (I have statistical reservations about this...unless they controlled for age, which will skew much younger among female veterans, I'm not sure this is meaningful.)
Overall quality of care is good, according to the Asinine Press, when compared to commonly accepted medical standards. It would seem to me that making further improvements in the quality of care for our sisters would be a fairly simple matter of outreach to qualified staff, creative contracting arrangements with local specialists, and a modest investment in stirrups and whatever else those people use.
Splash, out
Jason
(Hat tip: Followed a link suggested by a CBS producer. The report he was pitching was too insipid to waste your time with. But this one was good. Eric, if you're reading this, more as well-researched and reported as this one, please! I'll link to them every time!)
Labels: soldiers' issues, VA
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