Gulf War 1 Veteran Healthcare Satisfaction

• Assessing client satisfaction changes at 3 months [ Time Frame: baseline, 3 months later ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Client Satisfaction Questionnaire
  
  
• Assessing patient satisfaction changes at 3 months [ Time Frame: baseline, 3 months later ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire
  
  

• Physician assessment change at 3 months [ Time Frame: Baseline, 3 months later ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Physician survey
  
  

Veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War1 (GW1) conflict are still experiencing a host of adverse health conditions at the present time. Many GW1 Veterans are still unhappy with their health care at the VA, and other stakeholders are critical of how the VA has dealt with GW1 Veterans' issues. For these reasons, the Gulf War Veterans' Illness Task Force (GWVI-TF) was set up to find ways to improve the situation.

The present survey study addresses one of GWVI-TF's missions, that is, to identify gaps in VA services, and to discover opportunities to better serve GW1V. Caring for GW1V is a top priority for VA health care providers, which is all the more pressing for the following reasons: 1. medical science of Gulf War Illness and environmental exposures is still at its infancy, 2. most providers have not received any focused education about how to take care of GW1V and the unique medical problems these veterans face, 3. a lack of provider knowledge that GW1V may receive may lead to decreased satisfaction on the part of GW1V and may result in GW1V perceived health service quality that is compromised.

In this pilot study, we focus on #2 and #3, to determine how we may understand veterans' perceptions of their medical treatment to ultimately improve GW1V medical health outcomes.