Washington, D.C. -- Using advances in telecommunications technology, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has expanded primary health-care programs nationwide through its network of "Vet Centers," which routinely provide counseling services to combat or traumatized veterans.
In addition to $3 million in equipment and startup operating costs related to telemedicine at 20 locations, an additional $1 million is being provided to expand and enhance conventional primary care programs at 10 Vet Centers.
"Our goal is to promote access to primary care for veterans closer to their communities," VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer said. "This latest effort complements the initiative launched in late 1994 to implement universal primary care at VA medical centers across the nation, as well as the over 100 community-based clinics we have established in the last two years," Dr. Kizer said.
The Vet Center-linked initiatives will promote services such as health screenings for chronic diseases, health prevention programs, sexual trauma outreach and counseling, and psychosocial services. The programs will target special populations, including high-risk groups, minority veterans and veterans who face barriers to care, such as disabled and homeless veterans.
For example, the Navajo Vet Center outstation in Chinle, Ariz., will provide health screenings for hypertension and diabetes as well as psychiatric assessments and consultations with Native Americans on reservation lands, while the Philadelphia, Pa., Vet Center will provide health screenings and follow-up medical care to a minority veteran population of primarily Puerto Rican and African-American background.
The 20 sites participating in telemedicine initiatives will link rural and urban Vet Centers, VA medical centers, and other community agencies and resources. Telemedicine uses electronic information and communication technologies to support health care over long distances through such applications as teleconferences or retrieval of networked records.
This initiative is part of VA's ongoing major effort to make its services more community-based. The program is separate from VA's development of community-based outpatient clinics, another initiative designed to increase access points for VA health-care.
