Honoring Veterans Through Compassionate, Home-Based Care
By Dr. Tom Edes, Senior Medical Advisor, Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC)
A Message from C-TAC
At the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), we believe every person deserves care that honors their dignity, preferences, and values — especially those who have served our nation. This Veterans Day, we’re proud to highlight the work of Dr. Tom Edes, Senior Medical Advisor to C-TAC and longtime leader at the Department of Veterans Affairs, who has dedicated his career to improving care for Veterans with serious illness. His reflections remind us that person-centered, home-based care is not just good medicine — it’s an expression of gratitude and respect for those who served.
Honoring Service and Sacrifice
On this Veterans Day, we pause to honor the brave men and women who have served our nation — and the families who have shared in their sacrifice. Their courage has preserved our freedoms and safeguarded our democracy through generations of service and conflict.
As we reflect on the immense cost of that service — more than 116,000 who gave their lives in World War I, 450,000 in World War II, 36,000 in the Korean War, nearly 70,000 in Vietnam, and thousands more in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom — we also give thanks to the millions who returned home. Many of them continue to live with lifelong challenges stemming from physical injuries, mental health conditions, or other complex medical needs.
Bringing Care Home to Those Who Served
For Veterans who face significant barriers to clinic-based care due to serious or disabling conditions, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has offered an innovative and deeply compassionate solution: Home Based Primary Care (HBPC).
For more than five decades, small interdisciplinary HBPC teams — including physicians, nurses, social workers, dietitians, rehabilitation therapists, psychologists, and others — have been quietly delivering comprehensive, longitudinal care directly to Veterans in their homes.
This model has proven to be transformative. HBPC consistently achieves the highest satisfaction ratings among all VA healthcare services and significantly reduces preventable hospitalizations and emergency visits. Most importantly, it allows Veterans to remain safely in the place they most want to be — their homes.
Stories of Service, Gratitude, and Impact
During my four decades at the VA, I was privileged to work with countless Veterans whose stories continue to shape my understanding of compassionate, person-centered care.
I remember one World War II Veteran in his late 80s who had endured a year of repeated hospitalizations before enrolling in our HBPC program. Living with multiple chronic conditions — including congestive heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and a progressive neurological disorder — he told us:
“You know, I was hospitalized five times last year. Nearly died. Since getting into your home care program, I haven’t had one hospitalization. Somebody is doing their job — and doing it very well.”
His wife, visibly moved, added:
“I couldn’t have kept him home without this program. I know he would have been in a nursing home by now. I am so grateful to you for helping him stay here with me.”
Another memory that stays with me is of a young Veteran, just 23 years old, living with a severe traumatic brain injury and using a wheelchair. When I visited, he proudly showed off his three large computer screens — his window to the world. He spoke of the HBPC nurse and occupational therapist who helped him maintain his independence, the psychologist who supported his mental health, and the social worker who connected him to community resources. Every Tuesday, a fellow Veteran would visit, help him into a car, and take him out for the day — a small act of connection that meant everything.
Scaling What Works
Thanks to its success in improving outcomes and reducing costs, the VA’s Home Based Primary Care program has expanded dramatically — from serving around 7,000 Veterans per day twenty-five years ago to now reaching more than 40,000 Veterans every day.
The evidence base and program standards developed through VA HBPC were instrumental in shaping Medicare’s Independence at Home demonstration, proving that home-based primary care can deliver higher quality, lower-cost care for people with complex needs — Veterans and civilians alike.
Continuing the Mission
As the VA, CMS, and healthcare organizations nationwide continue to collaborate, these innovations are not only transforming care for Veterans but also advancing a model of dignity, independence, and respect for all Americans facing serious illness.
On this Veterans Day, let us honor our nation’s heroes not only with words of gratitude but with action — by continuing to support compassionate, person-centered models of care that allow them to live their final years as they choose: at home, surrounded by those they love.
About the Author
Dr. Tom Edes is a Senior Medical Advisor to the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) and formerly served in multiple leadership roles at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where he directed Geriatrics and Extended Care operations and led innovations in home-based and serious illness care for Veterans.
A Final Note from C-TAC
At C-TAC, we are proud to work alongside leaders like Dr. Edes who champion care models that uphold choice, quality, and compassion. As we remember and thank our nation’s Veterans today, we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that all Americans — no matter where they live or what challenges they face — can receive care that reflects their goals, values, and dignity.
