In this episode, host Fred Baker talks with Dr. Julie Kroviak, the principal deputy assistant inspector general of the VA OIG’s Office of Healthcare Inspections, about changes to how cyclical healthcare reviews are conducted. Dr. Kroviak explains how her teams are reworking the Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection Program cyclical reports to provide more information on the veteran communities being served by VA medical facilities. Additionally, she shares how, for the first time, the VA OIG will start reviewing VA mental health programs cyclically.

“We're going to start with a glimpse of the community that the facility operates in, and that's totally new. We've never done anything like that but giving the reader a sense of who's living in this community, what's the education level, what's the income level, the disease burden, active duty and veteran populations, all of these [factors] sort of really influence how care is delivered, and we want to present that in a reader-friendly kind of glimpse so you can understand what's influencing care and the veterans served in that community.” – Dr. Julie Kroviak