Book excerpt: Phil Longman, an award-winning journalist and senior fellow at the New America Foundation, tells the compelling story of how the Veterans Administration, once notorious for dangerous, dirty and scandal-ridden hospitals, transformed itself into what is demon¬strably the highest quality health care system in America. By making extensive use of electronic medi¬cal records and evidence-based medicine the VA has devel¬oped a model of 21st century health care that boosts safety, cost effectiveness, and patient satisfaction, and provides deep les¬sons for overhauling the U.S. health care system. Drawing on real world examples and the latest scientific research, Best Care Anywhere—now in it’s second edition—is particularly with the passage of health care reform in America, offering readers powerful new ways of thinking about health care. “Among the most important social policy books published in the last decade.” —Ezra Klein, The Washington Post