Identification of Military Veterans Upon Implementation of a Standardized Screening Process in a Federally Qualified Health Center

The identification of veterans receiving care in community-based settings is important and has implications for healthcare delivery and workforce training and development. As part of a larger collaboration regarding the delivery of behavioral health services, this project partnered a Midwest Veterans Affairs Medical Center with a state primary care association and large federally qualified health center (FQHC) to standardize the method in which veteran status is captured in clinic. Before adapting the screening item and implementing it as a required field in the electronic medical record, the number of veterans reported was 56, or 0.32% of total patients. After implementation, that number increased to 506, or 3.01% of total patients. This suggests there is a need to standardize the method in which veteran status is collected, which has implications for awareness of conditions likely to impact veterans and may inform opportunities for providers to engage in veteran-centric education and training.