United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Hospital Compare

VA Transparency Program - ASPIRE

VA’s transparency program reports VA health care goals, successes and opportunities to improve. The Aspire and Links dashboards provide information on how VA Medical Centers meet these goals. The Aspire dashboard depicts how each of VA Medical Center measures up to quality goals and is divided into two sections: LinKS (Linking information knowledge and systems) and ASPIRE. The LinKS dashboard reports outcome and processes for acute care, intensive care unit (ICU), and patient safety measures. This type of information is made for health care professionals by statisticians and may be difficult to understand. A glossary of definitions is provided for each section . Questions can be referred to the Public Affairs office at any of our Medical Centers.  
   
 
   
 Select an area of interest from the map to see how your local medical center is performing.  
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ASPIRE is a web-based dashboard that documents quality and safety goals for all VA Hospitals. This data shows strengths and opportunities for improvement at the national, regional and local hospital level. Aspire data supports the VA’s mission of a continuous health care improvement program to provide the best possible care to Veterans. The database lists many “measures” and our goal for each measure. The data shows “ where we are” in comparison to where we want to be. A simple example would be for blood pressure management. The goal for all veterans age 18-85 with high blood pressure is to have blood pressure readings less than 140/90. This measure shows the percentage of Veterans meeting that blood pressure goal. The data in this dashboard will be updated on a regular basis.   
   
VA’s Linking Information Knowledge and Systems (LinKS) is a dashboard that documents outcome measures for acute care, ICU, outpatient , safety and annual measures. This data shows strengths and opportunities for improvement at the national, regional and local hospital levels. LinKS supports the VA mission to provide the best possible care to the Veterans. The dashboard shows what we are measuring and our result. A simple example would be for smoking. We measure the percentage of veterans that smoke and what we’ve done to help them stop smoking such as smoking cessation classes, counseling or medication to help them quit. The data will be updated on a regular basis.