VA Adopts New Care Delivery System for Chronic Diseases

VA Adopts Patient-Centered Care Model Based on Treatment of Chronic Conditions 12/31/09. WASHINGTON, DC—Diabetes is, in many ways, the prototypical chronic disease. It is slow moving, progressive, complex, and it impacts patients’ lives in ways that cannot be quantified on a medical chart. Physicians at the Department of Veterans Affairs have learned a lot about treating diabetes over the last several decades, and during that time, certain concepts have emerged: shared decision-making processes, patient-guided treatment, and population management. Now, as VA undertakes a system-wide effort to evaluate and redesign its primary care delivery system, those concepts are helping to guide a process that will help move VA care, including diabetic care, into the 21st century. U.S. Medicine