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May 2004
 Department of
Veterans Affairs Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services
(CARES)
Over the last half
century, American medicine has transformed itself from hospital
centered to patient centered treatment. Most patients see their
physicians on an outpatient basis and much treatment is provided
by prescription drugs. Mentally ill patients are no longer
consigned to remotely located, thousand-bed asylums for the
remainder of their lives. Treatment for tuberculosis no longer
involves lengthy institutionalization. VA medicine has kept up
with, and sometimes led, these innovations. Additionally, in 1996,
the Congress enacted legislation expanding eligibility for the
complete continuum of VA care, including outpatient care and
prescription drugs, to all 25 million veterans. As a result of
these changes, the number of VA outpatient visits increased from
38 million to 50 million per year between 1999 and 2003 and the
number of 30 day equivalent prescriptions per year increased from
142 million to over 200 million.
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