“Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said the agency’s telehealth services at Walmarts will expand in parts of the country with limited access to the agency’s hospitals, calling the move the ‘wave of the future.’”
“Wilkie said the agency’s plan to have a larger footprint in areas where it is more difficult to get to a hospital will kick off after the coronavirus pandemic starts to wind down. Since VA and Walmart announced their private-public partnership last year, five telehealth centers have been opened in stores in mostly rural parts of the country and at Veterans of Foreign Wars sites…”
“At each Walmart telehealth site, the store donates the equipment and space. The VA said most medications can be prescribed on-site and delivered to the veteran’s home. Services vary at each location but may include primary care, nutrition, mental health and social work…”
“’They can do routine things, basic hearing and eye tests and things like that. But I see it as the wave of the future for mental health. This puts veterans in a comfortable setting. It doesn’t force them or their families to travel long distances. And it doesn’t force them into what could be in many cases an unfriendly, large clinic setting,’ Wilkie said.” Read the full article here.
Source: VA’s post-pandemic plan: Expand health care services at Walmarts – By Steve Beynon, July 13, 2020. Stars and Stripes.
