VISN websites: Research to validate content assumptions

[jilladams]

Description

Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN): The U.S. is divided into 18 VISNs, as "regional systems of care working together to better meet local health care needs and provides greater access to care": https://www.va.gov/HEALTH/visns.asp

There is an internal question at VA around migrating VISN websites to the modernized experience and whether that's valuable. Much of the information is:

• Events / calendar
• Newsletter -- if migrated, content would be added to multiple healthcare systems as syndicated content, rather than living on a VISN site.
• Leadership

We want to validate content assumptions around these websites / their future: would veterans expect this content on their medical websites vs. a VISN website. This would demand a COPE/seamless content migration.

We want to know:

• Do veterans use the VISN page
• Where would they expect this information to appear (on VISN vs. local healthcare center)
• Do Veterans need to know what a VISN is?

User story

DRAFTS:

• AS A veteran, I WANT to understand the regional health care options available to me SO THAT I can efficiently & effectively access my health care.

• AS AN editor I WANT to ensure that regional healthcare information provided by VISN websites is available within VA.gov SO THAT I can efficiently manage a single source of truth.

Design principles

Veteran-centered

• [X] Single source of truth: Increase reliability and consistency of content on VA.gov by providing a single source of truth.
• [ ] Accessible, plain language: Provide guardrails and guidelines to ensure content quality.
• [ ] Purposely structured content: Ensure Content API can deliver content whose meaning matches its structure.
• [ ] Content lifecycle governance: Produce tools, processes and policies to maintain content quality throughout its lifecycle.

Editor-centered

• [ ] Purpose-driven: Create an opportunity to involve the editor community in VA’s mission and content strategy goals.
• [X] Efficient: Remove distractions and create clear, straightforward paths to get the job done.
• [ ] Approachable: Offer friendly guidance over authoritative instruction.
• [X] Consistent: Reduce user’s mental load by allowing them to fall back on pattern recognition to complete tasks.
• [ ] Empowering: Provide clear information to help editors make decisions about their work.

Acceptance criteria

• [ ] TBD

Team

Please check the team(s) that will do this work.

• [ ] CMS Team
• [X] Public Websites
• [x] Facilities
• [ ] User support

[jilladams]

Action items:

• @jilladams @wesrowe need to onboard @Dottisea @kmariepat-cityfriends & @smythe5 to this as a Facilities question, where Cindy may help with research
• Facilities folks to meet with Dave & Cindy & Tim to talk about scope / next steps

[cindymerrill]

To facilitate async collaboration, I drafted a Word document of research ideas that others should be able to comment in (if logged into the VA system): Facilities VISN Research Ideas. This was based on the limited information I heard today from [@Dave Conlon(https://dsva.slack.com/team/UNR3WALGZ) in Sprint Planning. @Dorothy Cummings @Kamari Patrick @Jill Adams

[cindymerrill]

I assigned myself to this ticket so it will show up on my board, even though we haven't yet had a kickoff about it.

[cindymerrill]

Met with Dave C and Dotti, and updated research ideas in my document.

[mmiddaugh]

This content is moving to department.va.gov (intended for a primarily non-Veteran audience). Closing this issue.