Understanding Care Access for Women Veterans

Overview

Altarum partnered with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Women's Health Group to understand the obstacles women Veterans encounter in getting care from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), fielding a national survey across every Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN).

Challenge: How to Reach Every Woman Veteran

The VHA Women's Health Group needed to understand why some women Veterans use VA care and others do not, and what stands in the way, across regions and demographic groups.

Solution: A National Survey Built for Representativeness

Altarum coordinated input from 25 contributors, conducted literature reviews, and designed and tested the survey instrument. To build the sample, Altarum merged Veterans Experience Office profile data with the VA Master Person Index and matched it to federal Veteran data to identify both users and non-users of VA care, producing a sample frame that represented almost half of all living women Veterans.

Altarum secured federal survey clearance in four months, then partnered with American Directions Research Group to field the survey by web and telephone—reaching approximately 7,200 completes across all 18 VISNs within 32 weeks.