Telehealth
Telehealth
Philadelphia VA Medical Center implemented Tele-Cardiology at the outpatient clinic in Horsham, Pennsylvania. Telehealth usage has been expanded in areas such as insomnia, sleep apnea, rehabilitation, surgery, gastrointestinal, and transplant.
Altoona VA Medical Center added seven new Clinical Video Telehealth (CVT) programs in 2015 including: heart healthy group, Veterans Justice Outreach, Hepatitis C, Primary Care-Mental Health Integration, Primary Care, Rheumatology and Stem Cell. These were added to other services such as physical therapy, behavioral health, nutrition to name a few.
Miles Dunklebarger, a Vietnam Veteran who has been a patient at Altoona VA for 20 years, previously traveled to VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System for some of his care. "This saves us Vets a lot of travel time, and it's got to be saving VA a lot of bucks," he says. "I will take this in a heartbeat over traveling all day for a one-hour appointment."
VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System has one of the highest virtual care usage rates in the country. Some 55 percent (nearly 36,000 Veterans) of our local patient population virtually connects with caregivers using secure messaging, e-consults, and telehealth technology.
VAPHS offers telemental health services at all five of its outpatient clinics as well as two regional Vet Centers, a transitional housing and services center for veterans, and a regional trade school. These services enable a patient to attend a computer-enabled virtual appointment with a Pittsburgh-based VA medical provider. Services provided include individual and couples therapy, medication evaluation, medication management, and therapies for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, insomnia, anxiety, stress management, grief and life transitions.
VAPHS offers select Veterans in-home telemental health services to monitor their medical and psychiatric care. Veterans utilize a home monitoring device to transmit important health data, such as their blood pressure and mood, to a telehealth nurse working at a remote location. Home-based telemental health improves communication between a Veteran and his or her clinical team while reducing the incidence of emergency department visits and hospital admissions. At any given time, more than 200 Veterans are using VA Pittsburgh's home-based telemental health services.
A collaborative effort between the Coatesville and Philadelphia VA medical centers now offer home sleep tests to evaluate Veterans for sleep apnea. This novel program improves access to care, reduces time lost from work for Veterans, reduces the need to outsource this service, decreases VA cost of care, and serves as a model for remote delivery of specialty services.
