VISN 8’s 24/7/365 Urgent and Tele-Emergency Care Service Surpasses 10 Million Calls

The achievement was reached just short of the center’s fifth anniversary which will be recognized next month. 

The VISN 8 Clinical Contact Center, a highly popular and sought after medical resource for Veterans, provides 24/7/365 virtual urgent and tele-emergency care to patients enrolled for VA care in Florida, South Georgia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

Veterans can contact the center from the comfort of their homes or wherever they may be by calling 1-877-741-3400 or by using the VA Health Chat App – a secure mobile app available for both Android and IOS devices. Services provided include general administrative support like appointment scheduling and management, nurse triage, virtual visits with a doctor or nurse practitioner, and pharmacy services.

“Surpassing 10 million calls represents our ability to provide reliable, fast, high-quality care while creating meaningful patient experiences with first contact resolution,” said Suzanne M. Klinker, Deputy Network Director for Clinical Contact Center, VISN 8.

“Veterans know they can contact us anytime and get the help they need without delay, and that is reflected in the volume of calls we receive each day and the feedback we receive from the men and women who entrust us with their care.  Our focus is to provide the soonest and best care to America’s heroes,” she said. 

Since its official launch in July 2019, the center’s service capability, technological advancements, and staffing levels have grown exponentially as the demand for services have increased.

According to officials, from 2021 to 2023 alone, telephone calls received by the center have increased by 84 percent, or from about 2 million calls in 2021 to 3.7 million calls in 2023. During the same period, virtual medical appointments completed, and pharmacy cases handled greatly increased by 90 percent and 159 percent respectively.

The VISN 8 Clinical Contact Center is also a leader in the use of VA Health Chat. Since implementing the application in March 2020, secure chat volume has increased by an astounding 262 percent.

In addition to being a top medical resource for Veterans, the center has also partnered with the University of Central Florida College of Medicine to offer a virtual care elective to fourth-year medical students. Initiated by Dr. Veronica Sikka, Chief of Virtual Care, in 2020, the learning opportunity was the first exclusively telehealth elective offered by the university.

“The VISN 8 Clinical Contact Center provides an excellent environment to train America’s future medical professionals due to the sheer volume of contacts we receive each day from Veterans and the cutting-edge technology we use to deliver care,” Sikka said. 

“As an innovator in the integration of virtual tele-urgent and tele-emergency care with medical education, the center is really on the cutting edge of the future of medical education,” she said. 

To learn more about the VISN 8 Clinical Contact Center, please visit www.visn8.va.gov/ccc.asp.

About the VA Sunshine Healthcare Network (VISN 8)

Located in Tampa, Florida, the VA Sunshine Healthcare Network (VISN 8) is the nation’s largest system of hospitals and clinics serving a population of more than 1.4 million Veterans in a vast 64,153 square mile area spread across 79 counties in Florida, South Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. VISN 8’s seven healthcare systems include eight Joint Commission-accredited VA medical centers and more than 90 outpatient clinic locations. More than 35,000 full-time employees work at these facilities, providing a full range of high quality, cost-effective medical, psychiatric, and extended care services in an inpatient, outpatient, nursing home, and home care settings. In 2023, more than 640,000 patients actively used VISN 8 facilities while completing 9.3 million outpatient visits.