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. 2013 Dec;103(Suppl 2):S331–S339. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301481

TABLE 1—

Variation in Degree of Primary Care Service Tailoring in Tailored vs Nontailored Care Programs: 5 Study Sites, January 2011–March 2012

Primary Care Service Design Characteristics Mainstream VA B Mainstream VA C (Alabama) Mainstream VA A (Pennsylvania) Tailored VA (California) Tailored Non-VA (Massachusetts)
Explicit homeless mission X X
Primary care in shelters and streets X X
Team design assures continuity from streets/shelters to clinic X
Formal relationships to community shelters X X
Homeless-focused staff training X X
PC and mental health in same clinical space X X X
PC clinic equipped to directly meet tangible needsa
Linkage to national homeless organizations X
Formerly homeless persons in organizational governance X
> 10 y explicit homeless mission focus X

Note. PC = primary care; VA = Veterans Affairs. Tailored non-VA refers to a 26-year old Health Care for the Homeless Program. Mainstream VA sites are non-tailored primary care sites in Pennsylvania (A), and Alabama (B and C). Tailored VA is a VA homeless-tailored primary care program (California). Characteristics pertain to the design of the primary care service utilized by study participants. Survey questions defined primary care as the person or team seen for a check-up or for a general medical problem when it is not an emergency. By design, recruitment was initiated only with persons who had recorded evidence of 2 or more primary care visits. An X indicates the characteristic pertains to the primary care service utilized. Thus “clinic equipped to directly meet tangible needs” is designated only when the primary care site utilized by patients was specifically equipped to directly meet such needs, and not designated if such a service was available elsewhere in the same hospital-based system of care.

a

Such as clothing and food.