VA Loma Linda Innovates to Better Serve Veterans

In September, the hospital was awarded a 4-star hospital quality rating by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. CMS’s hospital ratings are based on five categories: mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience and timely and effective care. A higher star rating, out of 5, indicates better performance on these quality measures. 

Within the last year, VA Loma Linda Healthcare System has instituted several improvements to better serve Veterans. These include reducing hospital readmissions through enhanced post-discharge follow-up and care coordination, expanding access to care in primary and specialty care through open slot management, and broadening the use of telehealth to improve timely access and reduce missed appointments.  

“We’ve made a lot of changes to certain processes to improve overall patient experience,” said Stephen Anderson, Chief Nurse of Critical Care at VALLHS. “We look at the hard data and evidence through joint patient safety reports submitted by employees to determine and address potential process issues that we can improve.”

State-of-the-art technology is also a major focus for VALLHS. In August, Marco Rojas, a U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam War-era Veteran, underwent surgery due to a combat injury that made his legs different lengths and led to severe knee arthritis. VALLHS Chief of Staff Dr. Franklin Sechriest performed surgery on Rojas to restore his leg length and give him a brand-new artificial knee. Rojas has since reported that he is, “walking, cutting his grass, and doing extremely well.”

"I’ve been to a lot of hospitals and found that VA is the best hospital in the nation,” said Rojas. “The surgeons are #1, the nurses are phenomenal, and all the staff are supportive and concerned about your health.”

Another Veteran, Olyn Phillips, benefited from cutting-edge technology during an atrial fibrillation ablation at VALLHS in September. This operation is conducted to treat a heartbeat irregularity known as atrial fibrillation (AFib), usually when other options, such as medicine, have been exhausted. 

“AFib makes you feel like a zombie,” said Phillips, a Vietnam Veteran who was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for his service. “I know others who struggle with it. Some of them have been operated on multiple times. But since the operation at VA Loma Linda, I feel great.”

VALLHS has also made strides to streamline healthcare education materials for Veterans. Bansari Trivedi, a registered dietitian and diabetic specialist, was recently selected for the brand-new Veterans Health Administration All-Employee Innovation Program for her project: The Road to Diabetes Prevention. This Innovation Ecosystem program provides VHA employees with a streamlined opportunity to develop, refine, and scale innovative solutions that enhance Veteran care. Approximately five years ago, Trivedi became involved in the hospital’s diabetes prevention program; a one-year program that would educate Veterans on how to avoid and prevent diabetes.  

“I realized that the time commitment was a lot to ask of our Veterans,” said Trivedi. “So, I worked to create a condensed, more digestible one-hour version of the course for Veterans who can’t make the one-year commitment due to time constraints and other personal circumstances.”

Scott Kelter, VALLHS Interim Medical Center Director who was appointed on November 2, looks forward to further innovations and the overall future of the healthcare system.

“Our healthcare system is on a clear trajectory of making improvements that directly benefit Veterans,” said Kelter.  “We have recently made changes to use our procedure rooms in the safest, most efficient way possible, and introduced a new clinical note dictation system to capture conversation during appointments so doctors and nurses can focus more on the Veteran and less on the computer during the appointment. Our teams are always coming up with ways to help our Veterans and I’m very proud of the work they’re doing.”