Consultations to be clinic-based for all mental health specialties.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has set a goal to conduct more than 200,000 clinic-based, telemental health consultations for all mental health specialties in fiscal 2012. This follows VA’s announcement last month that it would no longer charge eterans a copayment when they receive care in their homes from VA health professionals using video conferencing.
The clinic-based telehealth program involves the more than 800 VA community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) where many veterans receive primary care. If the CBOCs do not have a mental health care provider available, secure video teleconferencing technology is used to connect the veteran to a provider within VA’s nationwide system of care.
As a result, veterans can arrange appointments at times more in synch with their schedules. The program improves access to general and specialty services in geographically remote areas where it can be difficult to recruit mental health professionals.
Since the start of the Telemental Health Program, VA has completed more than 550,000 patient encounters. In fiscal 2011 alone, more than 140,000 encounters were conducted with 55,000 veterans via CBOCs, where providers at 150 hospitals delivered care to veterans at more than 500 clinics.
The Telehealth Expansion Initiative, launched in May 2011, called for an additional 21 regional leads, 144 facility coordinators and 1,150 clinical technicians to VA’s workforce. When fully implemented, the expansion will provide a potential capacity of 1.2 million consultations annually.
Video to the home is currently projected to grow to 2,000 patients by the end of fiscal year 2012, with 1,500 using innovative new Internet Protocol (IP) video connected to veterans’ personal computers.
In addition to supporting these current programs, the VHA National Telemental Health Center in West Haven, Conn., has pioneered additional new programs that delivered 1,000 specialized patient encounters from mental health experts at multiple VA sites to veterans throughout the nation. These include over 100 compensation and pension exams, 700 clinical encounters to over 165 veterans enrolled in behavioral pain treatment programs, and 200 clinical-video and telephone encounters to over 70 Veterans enrolled in a bipolar disorder treatment program.
For more information, on VA’s telemental health, visit the Office of Telehealth Services.
- Veterans Healthcare