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Former members of the armed forces who were discharged or released from active duty under conditions other than dishonorable after more than 24 months of active service.
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Former members of the armed forces, including reserve service members, who were discharged or released from active duty under conditions other than dishonorable after serving more than 100 days under a combat exclusion or in support of a contingency operation either directly or by operating an unmanned aerial vehicle from another location.
- Former members of the armed forces who were the victim of a physical assault of a sexual nature, a battery of a sexual nature, or sexual harassment while serving in the armed forces.
Since last month, we produced a number of resources and training for health care professionals and other frontline staff to successfully provide these benefits. Check out the resources below:
With COMPACT, Veterans in an acute suicidal crisis – no matter if they are seeking care at VA or in the community – can get the soonest and best care. Preventing Veteran suicide is VA’s top clinical priority and everyone has a role to play. I urge you to share these critical resources with your staff, facility, network and community providers.
Miguel H. LaPuz, MD, MBA
Assistant Under Secretary for Health
for Integrated Veteran Care
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VA Health Connect is comprised of 18 nationally-networked, virtual clinical contact centers that increase access to care by connecting Veterans and caregivers to 24/7, on-demand services by phone, video, text and chat (where available).
Clinical contact centers offer four core services to resolve most health care concerns:
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Scheduling and administrative services
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Clinical triage
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Virtual clinic visits (VCVs)
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Pharmacy services
Using the latest telehealth technologies, VCVs allow registered nurses to work with Veterans and determine whether a more detailed VCV with a medical provider is needed.
Through its services, VA Health Connect offers both Veterans and VA employees a number of benefits, including zero-mile access to needed service, reduced traffic and parking frustrations and increased access to timely, high-quality care. At the same time, VA Health Connect supports a more positive Veteran experience and builds Veteran’s trust with VA.
In 2022, VA Health Connect telehealth technology handled 71,511 VCV appointments and over 35 million total calls (across all service types, including VCVs). VA Health Connect continues to help Veterans connect quickly to the services they need and make it easier to access the soonest and best care.
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The National Referral Coordination Initiative (RCI) team recently published the RCI Guidebook which describes how to establish, operate and manage VA Referral Coordination Teams (RCTs).
The guidebook outlines RCI business and clinical processes so VA staff can help coordinate Veteran referrals at VA and in the community. VA staff can also review RCI roles and responsibilities, implementation tasks, consult management processes, data and reporting, and more. For more information about RCI resources or the guidebook, visit the RCI SharePoint.
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Congratulations to VA’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention (OMHSP) and VA Health Connect for receiving the 2022 National HeRO Award!
The national award is the highest level of High Reliability Organization (HRO) recognition available within VHA and is awarded quarterly to honor staff members who advance VHA’s Journey to High Reliability through demonstrations of VHA’s HRO principles in action.
In collaboration with the OMHSP, the VA Health Connect leadership team held a two-day summit focused on modernizing the Clinical Contact Center patient call flows for Veterans at risk for suicide. The summit gathered 300 VISN and medical center staff to align triage efforts with mental health directives for five-point screenings and increase same-day access for Veterans.
The two-day collaboration produced an approach to ensure Clinical Contact Centers follow patient care workflow and business processes that incorporate the five-point screening process to enable same-day access to mental health if needed.
VA Health Connect leadership team awardees:
Maria Bouchard APRN, Director, VA Health Connect, Christine Rovinski-Wagner APRN, QM Program Manager, Gregory Kopp, RN Clinical RN Program Manager, Dr. Lisa Marrache, Sr. Medical Advisor, Brent Dixon VISN Operations Lead Specialist, Kassie Williams, National Operations Lead Specialist, Dr. Molly Bruvold, Pharmacy Program Manager and the VA Health Connect facilitator team.
Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention leadership team awardees:
Dr. Jay Cohen, Dr. Matthew Miller, Dr. Kendra Weaver, Dr. Jeffrey Bates, Dr. Ilse Wiechers, Dr. Clifford Smith, Dr. Jennifer Patterson, Dr. Lisa Kearney, Dr. Christopher Watson, Dr. Jesse Brugard, Dr. Donald "Hugh" Myrick, Susan Hastings and the OMHSP facilitator team.
Each awardee will receive a thank you letter from the Under Secretary for Health and will be recognized at the next semi-annual National HeRO Award ceremony, scheduled as a virtual event in Spring 2023.
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Standardizing bookable hours and appointment lengths
A new standard has been developed for VHA providers to ensure they are available to book appointments at least 80% of the time they are clinically mapped to outpatient care. The new standard also allows flexibility at the local level to account for variabilities by location. Similar to the bookable hours standard, leaders also developed an appointment length standard with ranges for high-volume stop codes.
Standardized bookable hours and appointment lengths across VHA facilities and clinical services has many benefits, including:
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Clear, streamlined direction
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Consistent care delivery experience
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Improved efficiencies
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Better use of resources, locally and across the enterprise
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More equitable workloads for staff
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Improved access and outcomes for Veterans
This approach also results in better, more reliable and consistent data across VHA facilities, allowing us to effectively balance clinical capacity and care demand. The IVC team continues to review data, processes, and monitor feedback to make improvements, adjust guidance and update trainings and standards.
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Training & Education
Course: Access 102 – Introducing the Key Roles That Impact Access explores three key roles and their corresponding responsibilities that impact access to care. This course explains the vital role of the Clinic Practice Management Team in Veterans’ access to care. (TMS ID VA 4638478)
Course: Data Stewardship Basics explains the role and responsibilities of business data stewards, including the operating environment, the characteristics and value data stewards bring to the organization, and the ethics of managing data. (TMS ID VA 4638764)
Course: Data Stewardship – Processes and Technology reviews VA data stewardship models, tools, and techniques, data management areas of focus, data life cycle, database management, and data integration. (TMS ID VA 4638788)
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Resources
Questions
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