Veteran uses Clinical Contact Center to beat infection

In 2020, after four decades as an intensive care unit nurse, Bruce Kook needed a change. The Air Force and Navy Veteran took a nursing job with a new VA program: the VISN 8 Clinical Contact Center.

The Clinical Contact Center provides 24/7 virtual care and support to Veterans in Florida, south Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

At first, Kook said he wasn’t sure how well the Clinical Contact Center would work. “Is virtual care going to be effective? I didn’t know,” he wondered. But a few months later, when Kook needed the Clinical Contact Center for his own care, he learned how valuable and effective it could be.

A nasty infection

In July 2020, Kook was working on his boat when he scraped his shin. He disinfected the wound and didn’t think much of it. The next day, he launched the boat into a lake near his home in central Florida. The lake had been dredged recently and some of the murky water got into Kook’s wound. The next morning, the injury got much worse.

“I woke up Saturday morning to an infection in my leg. It was nasty,” he said.

The infection grew quickly. And to make matters worse, the cut was dangerously close to Kook’s artificial knee. “You don’t risk having implanted devices get infected. I’m looking at this thing and thinking, ‘This is not good.’”

Kook weighed his options. He could go to the emergency room where he would likely have to wait to be seen. He could go to the local urgent care, but they didn’t have his medical records, and Kook was concerned that certain antibiotics could interact negatively with his medications.

Kook chose a third option: He called the service where he worked, the Clinical Contact Center.

Kook was on the phone with a triage nurse (pictured above) at about 6:30 a.m. At 7 a.m. he had a video telehealth appointment with a VA provider. Kook used VA Video Connect, VA’s secure videoconferencing app, to show his provider the infection on his leg. “All the concerns I had about not being in-person were abated by using VA Video Connect,” he said.

Kook said the provider carefully considered possible infection causes and his concerns about medication interactions. Then he wrote Kook a prescription.

By 8 a.m., he had picked up his antibiotics at Orlando VA and was on his way to beating the infection. “I had that problem resolved within two hours of making a phone call on a Saturday morning,” he said, amazed.

Over six million Veteran calls

Theresa Mont has been the chief nurse at the Clinical Contact Center since it was founded in July 2019. Over the past four years, it has fielded more than six million calls from Veterans.

“We’re very proud of what we do. When a Veteran calls, our goal is to get that Veteran what they need before they hang up the phone,” Mont said. This “first-contact resolution” is a hallmark of the Clinical Contact Center’s service.

The Clinical Contact Center is open every day and is staffed by nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, physicians and health administration professionals. The center fields calls from Veterans ranging from appointment scheduling to emergency situations.

As chief nurse, Mont oversees around 250 nurses—including Kook. She said working as a nurse in a virtual environment requires patience and active listening skills. “Your role as a nurse doesn’t change whether you’re on the floor or you’re virtual. We all made a promise to provide the best care that we can give,” she said.

Kook was the beneficiary of that care in 2020. And three years later, he highly recommends the Clinical Contact Center to his fellow Veterans.

“I believe in the work we do. Now I can testify that I have used the system. And I have told that story to numerous patients. I can’t say enough good things about it,” he added.

To learn more, visit the VISN 8 Clinical Contact Center webpage.