“Getting to Know You” is a song from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, “The King and I.” If you’ve ever wanted to get to know more about your VA health care providers, VA’s new “Our Providers” website is the place to find out!
The website https://www.accesstocare.va.gov/ourproviders offers a directory of more than 40,000 full time and part time VA health care providers who are independently licensed to provide care to Veterans, and who may be a member of your treatment team.
Information about VA physicians, dentists, chiropractors, optometrists, podiatrists, and psychologists can be found there, as can listings for advance practice nurses, certified registered nurse anesthetists, clinical nurse specialists and physician assistants.
The online directory directly aligns with VA secretary Dr. David Shulkin’s goal of promoting greater transparency in VHA healthcare. The entire repository is accessible from the department’s Access to Care Web site, with each individual VA facility Web site providing access to information about its specific providers.
Veterans and their families can learn where their health care professionals received their medical training and where they got their professional degrees. They can also filter their search for specific providers based on needs and preferences.
Searches can be conducted by state, VA facility name, occupation, gender and the service line to which the practitioner is assigned. Either a state or a VA facility must be selected for the search request to be processed.
The service will be updated every month to ensure timely information is available. It’s part of VA’s efforts to be more transparent and accountable to Veterans and their families.
If you’d like additional information on your provider, you can also contact your local VA medical center. If the provider is a physician, check out the “Docinfo” service offered by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) at www.docinfo.org. Like the VA site, the FSMB website is updated monthly, and offers information on any physician licensed to practice in the United States.
If you have a concern or question about a provider to whom you have been referred, please speak with your health care team. If you have a question about care you have already received, please contact the Patient Advocate at your facility.
About the author: Marianne Chick, MHA, is the Director, VHA Medical Staff Affairs.
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The database is a good start, but wouldn’t it be great for the largest integrated healthcare system in the U.S. to function like some of the best hospital systems in the U.S. Perhaps the VA could evolve this initiative further and offer more information. Information such as a picture of the provider, where they did their residency and fellowships, their research interests, the conditions they specialize in treating and feedback (ratings) from their patients. The Cleveland Clinic’s database could offer inspiration https://my.clevelandclinic.org/staff.
Veterans Medical Centers need to hired a Cosmetic Cosmetic Dentist knows how to put G4 implants at least one.