Veterans want to speak to people who understand them and their needs. VA’s newest clinical contact center, VA Health Connect, is modernizing the Veteran health care experience by offering a 24/7 virtual care option that captures the heart of in-person service, providing tailored, quality and dependable care.
In May 2020, the VA Office of Veterans Access to Care led an initiative to modernize and consolidate the 87 individual Veterans Affairs medical center call centers into 18 regional clinical contact centers serving all 171 medical centers.
VA Health Connect is more than just a call center
VA Health Connect is revolutionizing the traditional Veteran Integrated Services Network call centers by converting them into clinical contact centers. Clinical contact centers provide the right care, right now by:
- Expanding access to care, standardizing business and clinical processes and enhancing care coordination for Veterans.
- Delivering 24/7 access to dedicated clinical triage registered nurses, urgent care providers, clinical pharmacy and pharmacy support, plus administrative staff for general inquiries.
- Creating a simplified, high-quality experience for Veterans so they receive the care they need the first time they contact VA.
Veterans are using more telehealth services
VA Health Connect is expanding telehealth services to meet higher demand. Nearly 1,300 health care providers opened more than 1.4 million Veteran cases while receiving more than 45 million calls last fiscal year. The types of calls received from Veterans vary with some wanting to know if their symptoms warrant an emergency room trip to others wanting a prescription refill.
Every call through VA Health Connect clinical contact centers provides valuable information that improves the Veteran experience when accessing health care services. Learning about their experience through the telehealth services helps VA make improvements to better meet the needs of Veterans.
Bringing VA Health Connect to you
VA Health Connect is currently expanding nationwide across four essential core services:
- Scheduling and administrative services
- Clinical triage
- Virtual clinic visits
- Pharmacy services
Compared to traditional call centers, VA Health Connect clinical contact centers are unique because Veterans can talk to administrative staff, a nurse, pharmacist or urgent care provider to better facilitate and resolve their health questions when they need it. VA Health Connect brings more options wherever Veterans are, including telehealth visits over the phone or video.
“Delivering the soonest and best care to Veterans is our priority, and VA Health Connect delivers telehealth care to Veterans when and where they need it,” said Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Integrated Veteran Care Dr. Miguel LaPuz. “We have to remember the total number of appointments we deliver—between care in the community and care directly at VA—is about 110 million visits. If you think about the 45 million calls that have come in so far, it is not an insignificant number of workload coming from VA Health Connect. It represents nearly 40% of the total workload our providers are delivering. As we continue to expand, we can deliver more care that’s easier to access to more Veterans and beneficiaries at their convenience.”
Topics in this story
More Stories
Bob Jesse Award celebrates the achievements of a VA employee and a team or department that exemplifies innovative practices within VA.
The Medical Foster Home program offers Veterans an alternative to nursing homes.
Watch the Under Secretary for Health and a panel of experts discuss VA Health Connect tele-emergency care.
How about a traveling nurse or PA that visits veteran homes to see them – assess what communities services and programs that available to said veteran. – Having great tele med programs is wonderful but having the information in what, when where, how also needs to be communicated,
IT ACCEPTED MY COMMENTS AFTER I WAS GOING TO HANG UP.
READ COMMENTS BELOW AND AGREE , DO NOT TELL ME ABOUT THE GARBAGE IN THE PROGRAM, YET NOT TELL ME HOW TO ENLIST IN THE PROGRAM. TELLS ME THE LACK OF COMMON SENSE BEING USED BY THE CURRENT WRITER OF THIS ARTICLE.
MY COMMENTS COULD NOT BE FORWARDED, BECAUSE I SENT IT ALREADY. NO WAY CHARLIE BROWN!
JUST CALLED TO FIND OUT WHY I CANNOT POST THIS SECOND COMMENT AND HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO ANSWER THIS CALL FOR 13 MINUTES. SCREW YOUR SERVICE “WITH WE WILL RETURN TO RECEIVE YOUR CALL EVERY COUPLE OF SECONDS”. LEAVING AT 15:21 PM
I WOULD LIKE TO SUGGEST THAT THE VETERANS HAVE ONLY ONE CONTACT SOURCE IN COMMUNICATING WITH THE VA. ID.ME-LOGIN.GOV-MYHEALTHVET-DS LOGIN- ARE A DUPLICATION RESULTING IN EXTRA GOVERNMENT EXPENSE. CONFUSION FOR ALL IN MAKING CONTACT TO THE SAME SOURCE, BECAUSE EACH HAS ITS OWN SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS. WAKE UP PROGRAMERS!
You said it. I go around in circles. Link the damn systems already, and stop the obfuscation of action. Stop spinning our wheels. It’s worse than a call center in third world countries. Hire some of the technical experts to fix it. It’s so secure Nobody can access it .
sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo………….is there a new number to call????????? duh.
Health Connect sounds like a very useful program to have access to. I just have some basic journalism points I’d like clarified:
WHAT is Health Connect and what can it do? was explained in the article, thank you.
HOW do I get access to this resource? Via phone, web site, email or secure messaging?
WHEN does/did this program go “live” for my area?
WHERE do I go to find the point of contact(s) (POC) for my area?
WHO is/are the POC(s) for my area?
WHY does the VA assume we (veterans) know the VA’s organizational structure (chain of command)?
When I was on active duty, my NCOIC(supervisor) told me a very useful tip when writing instructions for people not trained in my career field. He said to reach out to someone who knows absolutely nothing about the information I wanted to pass on and have them read it. Then ask them to explain, in their own words, how to accomplish the process/task. Needless to say, I made use of his tip from the first day I tried it.
This sounds great but once again there’s a story about some useful service without links or directions to access it. Please, add info about how to use this or at least a link to its info site. Thanks!
I am a homebound 90% Disabled Homebound VA Patient in Hawaii. The VA Hawaii Clinic Refused my request to use the clinic because they were overwhelmed with VA Patients needing care. They assigned me to Choice Outcare Service which was a nightmare to manage 5 separate civilian disability Health Care specialists that require care coordination for the veteran… When I was transferred to Mission Act Health Care, VA integrated Health almost disappeared as the only part of Hawaii VA Health I was allowed to use…was Audiology, Optometry, and Pharmacy. HEALTH CONNECT adds a tremendous burden on this Seriously disabled Veteran without health care assistance which VA also refused this Vet. This VA Pt is unable to respond to HEALTH Connect queries due to inability to use That advanced telecommunication Technology. VA has now destroyed this Veteran’s ability to manage his own medical appointments thru VHA and Mission Act Outsourced Specialists simultaneously.
My wife and I have both used VA healthcare for 30yrs+ and have never heard of, let alone used this program.
Funny the article can’t even be bothered to show us how to use or give any contact info in order to use.
Stop touting things not available to all veterans who use VA health care.
Maybe I missed it but how do I access the Healthcare line?
I wonder how long the 45,000,000,000th Veteran had to wait on hold and if they got the answer they called for….