VHA - Shark Tank

Our Mission

Our annual VHA Shark Tank Competition identifies field-developed innovations that promote positive outcomes and improved experiences for Veterans and employees. The competition spotlights dedicated VHA employees who are addressing some of the toughest challenges across VHA and provides a platform for front-line team members and leaders to contribute to our learning healthcare system.

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Surgical Pause
Pre-Op Frailty Screening Saves Lives

This practice utilizes Risk Analysis Index to screen Veterans for frailty in 30 seconds, effectively flagging high risk Veterans so that the surgical team can ensure that the proposed treatment plans both mitigate known risks and align with the Veterans’ overarching life goals.

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VMET
Veterans Mental Evaluation Team

VMET assists in responding to calls involving local law enforcement interactions with veterans in crisis. The team, which includes a VA clinician and a VA police officer, conducts outreach efforts to contact “at risk” veterans who have stopped showing up for their psychiatric care at the VA Hospital.

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Beta Lactam Allergy Assessment
Saving Lives One Assessment at a Time

A pharmacist driven beta lactam allergy assessment and penicillin skin testing clinic established to clarify and clear patients BL allergies. This has helped minimize adverse patient outcomes associated with being labeled as being allergic to penicillin type antibiotics.

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News and Events

The VMET program assists in responding to calls involving local law enforcement interactions with veterans in crisis. This proactive outreach approach, which includes a VA clinician and VA police officer, is a first of its kind VA nationwide program to help reduce the number of veteran suicides.

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16 finalists entered the waters for the 2021 VHA Shark Tank competition and ten have emerged as the new cohort of Promising Practices for VHA IE. These 10 Promising Practices impact all aspects of Veteran care from a simple, standardized approach to VA operating room preparations to a high-tech approach to cancer care.

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The VHA Shark Tank Competition is bringing frontline innovators into a rousing shark tank-style pitch competition to help spread their work to impact even more Veterans lives. Winning Promising Practices have been replicated more than 830 times across the country with 10 of them moving into National Diffusion and helping change Veteran care for the better.

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Diffusion of Excellence announced its annual VHA Shark Tank Competition’s 15 Finalists. The Competition shines a spotlight on employees who are passionate about solving some of the toughest challenges across VHA. It also provides them with an opportunity to replicate and scale their practices further, while also elevating their platform to all levels of leadership for buy-in.

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How do you change a Veteran’s life? How do you save a Veteran’s life? Sometimes all you need is a simple sheet of paper, as shown by the surprisingly simple Suicide Alert Red Card practice. Other times it takes complex coordination with first responders and the surrounding community through a program like the Veterans Mental Evaluation Team (VMET). From simple to complex, the winning practices — known as Gold Status Practices (GSP) – of the 2019 VHA Shark Tank Competition are all changing and saving Veteran lives.

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VHA Shark Tank Competition

Identifying Employee-Developed Innovations

Our Mission

Promising Practices

Frequently Asked Questions