Military medicine
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Evaluate the resource-constrained, evidence-based, and outcome-driven Sacco Triage method (STM) for military-age victims of blunt, penetrating, and blast overpressure-like trauma. ⋯ STM offers lifesaving and operational advantages for military-age victims of blunt, penetrating, and blast overpressure-like trauma.
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In federal fiscal year (FY) 2005 the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) implemented the comprehensive Mental Health Strategic Plan (MHSP). This study used performance measures from six broad domains to examine changes in the overall delivery of mental health services in the VA since the implementation of the MHSP. Performance measures from fiscal year 2004, the year before implementation of the MHSP, were compared with measures from fiscal years 2005, 2006, and 2007, the first 3 years of MHSP implementation. ⋯ The domains with the greatest improvement (>1.0 standard deviation units) from FY 2004 to FY 2007 were population coverage/access, outpatient care quality, economic performance (primarily efficiency), and global functioning. There was a 0.3 standard deviation decline in inpatient satisfaction and a slight increase in reliance on inpatient care. Overall improvement in VA mental health care was thus substantial and continuing.