Telerehabilitation in the Veterans Health Administration

April 16, 2019 | 1:45 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. CDT

Telehealth is an effective and convenient way for patients to receive, and clinicians to provide, VA care. VA has implemented national telehealth quality and training resources to ensure local services from more than 900 VA locations and in over 50 specialty areas of care.

The VA supports a Telerehabilitation Enterprise Wide Initiative (TREWI) to enhance access to specialized rehabilitation services for rural Veterans through the development of a hub and spokes model system of care. Through four VA HUB sites (Seattle, San Antonio, Minneapolis and Richmond) and seven VA spoke sites the VA has addressed and developed a solution to provide access to Veterans in need of specialized rehabilitation. The hub and spoke sites provide specialized rehabilitation services, clinical care and consultation through telehealth with special focus on developing telerehabilitation protocols and providing virtual care to address Veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI), amputation, back pain and to promote assistive technology, health coaching and home safety evaluations to name only a few.

VA telerehabilitation champions provide clinical and technical education throughout the system of care and utilize specialized telerehabilitation protocols that outline a National standard of care. Telehealth in VA is the forerunner of a wider vision in which the relationship between patients and the health care system is changed with the full realization of the connected patient. The high levels of patient satisfaction and positive clinical outcomes attest to this.

Reference: https://vaww.infoshare.va.gov/sites/telehealth/docs/ts-factsheet.pdf

Speakers:

• Lesli Culver, Program Manager, Veterans Health Administration – Tampa, FL
• Jessica Barton, Program Manager, Veterans Health Administration – Richmond, VA
• Grace Wilske, Program Manager, Veterans Health Administration – Minneapolis, MN
• Amanda Olney, Program Manager, Veterans Health Administration – Seattle, WA