Butler’s Veterans Affairs health care facility continues to score high across several metrics, like patient satisfaction, that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs uses to gauge the quality of all facilities nationwide.

The department recently released data showing incremental improvements at the facility throughout the year. That was to be expected because, as spokesman Kenneth Kalberer explained, Butler’s facility has logged the highest possible marks over the last few years.

The measuring system includes some of the same metrics used by the private sector, but the VA also uses additional areas important to veteran care — like access to care, quality of mental health care, employee perception about the organization, nursing turnover and efficiency.

Using a star rating from one to five, with the latter being the highest quality, Butler’s facility has a five-star rating.

“We’re really proud of our quality care for our vets and maintaining this track record,” Kalberer said Tuesday. “We’re focused on access for VA mental health care and we’re addressing suicide specifically. We’re here for the veterans.”

Nationwide, the report shows 103 VA medical centers that account for 71 percent of facilities which have improved in overall quality.

The most significant gains were in areas that are being targeted by system-wide initiatives, such as mortality, length of stay and avoidable adverse events.

Five percent of facilities had a small decrease in quality.

At VA Butler Healthcare, special attention has been given to mental health care. Specifically, data shows that “continuity” and “experience of care” have gone up over the last year compared to 2017.

In a prepared statement, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie called the scores a major benchmark for the system’s push to improve quality and access.

“This is a major step in the right direction to improving our quality of services for our veterans. Over the past year, we were able to identify our problems and implement solutions to fixing the issues at 71 percent of our facilities,” Wilkie said. “I’m extremely proud of our employees and the progress they have made to raise VA’s performance for our nation’s heroes.”