Using GIS to profile health-care costs of VA Quality-Enhancement Research Initiative diseases.

The Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System launched a Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) in 1998. This study estimated health-care costs of nine diseases under the QUERI project and analyzed geographic differences in health-care costs and utilization across 22 VA Integrated Service Networks (VISNs), using a geographic information system (GIS). Patients with these diseases were identified from diagnoses recorded between October 1999 and September 2000. Annual health-care costs for each disease were estimated in four categories: inpatient medical or surgical, other inpatient, outpatient, and outpatient pharmacy. Geographic differences of costs and health-care utilization across the 22 VISNs for chronic heart failure, diabetes, and spinal-cord injury were mapped using a GIS package. Average costs and patterns of health-care utilization varied substantially across the 22 VISNs. The observed differences in health-care utilization across geographic regions raised questions for further investigation.