What is Care Coordination Services?
The Office of Care Coordination Services (CCS) uses health informatics, disease management and telehealth technologies to target care and case management to improve access to care, improving the health of veterans. Care Coordination changes the location where health care services are routinely provided. (More)
Care Coordination Services signature programs are Telehealth related. Three different versions of telehealth use the latest technologies to increase the veterans access to care. (More)
Telehealth Programs
Its not about the Technology
New technologies such as telehealth help improve health care services. For technology to work it must work for the people it is meant to help - patients and the professionals providing care. Care coordination in VA helps ensure veteran patients get the right care in the right place at the right time and aims to make the home into the preferred place of care, whenever possible. If the home, or place of residence, is going to be the preferred site of care the caregiver in the home and caregiver support in the local community becomes ever more important. The person who is usually there to deal with the fears and frustrations of the patient as they cope with their illness each day, transport them to the clinics and provide personal care is the caregiver in the home.
New Women's TeleTrauma Clinic
VHA’s Central Texas Health Care System (part of VISN 17) has implemented VA’s first group telemental health clinic for Women’s Trauma Treatment and Recovery. Sharon Wills, PhD, is a Women’s Trauma Recovery Specialist based at VA’s Outpatient Clinic in Austin, TX, and is in charge of the tele-clinic that has a psycho-educational focus. In Austin, Dr. Wills uses the videoconferencing unit in her office to facilitate a group of patients gathered 180 miles away (about a 3-hour drive) at the VA Outpatient clinic in Palestine, TX. The program began on Monday May 5, 2008 and meets twice each month. The clinic is open to female veterans who have experienced some type of trauma while in the military. This innovative program is the result of a two-year collaborative development between Dr. Wills and VISN 17’s Telemental Health Lead Coordinator Randy Goodwin, APRN-BC based at the Waco, TX, VAMC. Future plans include expanding access to other Central Texas CBOC's by the September 2008.