Outpatient dermatology appointment wait times for United States military veterans, 2014-2021.

ABSTRACT: Trends in outpatient dermatology appointment wait times for United States (US) veterans are poorly characterized. Given concerns surrounding prolonged wait times at Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical facilities, the federal government introduced the Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Outside Networks (MISSION) Act in 2018, allowing veterans to receive VHA-reimbursed community care if VHA specialty care appointments cannot be scheduled within 28 days. Considering this expanded access to community care, we characterized among US veterans the (1) overall demand for dermatology appointments, (2) trends in average wait times, and (3) facility/geographic variation in wait times. The VHA Corporate Data Warehouse was queried for all dermatology appointments from January 1, 20

SUBMITTER: Zheng DX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12728827 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature