Notice ID 36C10X22Q0238
BACKGROUND
In March 2022, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) organized a multi-disciplinary action team of national and field representatives to produce an implementation plan that will drive VA toward one strategic vision of the scheduling process. Integrated Veteran Care identified scheduling as a strategic goal, then identified multiple Information Technology (IT) programs which resulted in the stand-up of the multi-disciplinary action team. Separately, in determining VA priorities for VA IT funding, VA identified multiple program offices sponsoring parallel and overlapping IT requests, driving the need for better synergy among technical requirements and business needs for scheduling at all levels of VA. This resulted in an integrated scheduling effort where VA is seeking to foster an environment of seamless visibility of its internal Electronic Health Records’ provider grid availability as well as community grid provider access for in-person care, telehealth, video care and other non-in-person modalities.
The VA multi-disciplinary action team has captured all existing scheduling activities that touch community care (Third Party Administrators (TPAs) and VA), direct care, virtual care and Veteran self-scheduling. The business requirements and processes for these existing scheduling activities were determined and prioritized. A vision for VA integrated scheduling, multi-year program business case for IT funding, and a roadmap to achieve the vision were defined.
DESIRED END STATE
- All scheduling functions will need to be available for both internal VA facilities and community providers and all modalities.
- Resource based integrated Scheduling capability across all VA direct and community care modalities (in-person, telehealth, virtual, video, telephone) into one scheduling view. This would consist of multisite, internal VA facilities and community providers with a full transparent view of all availability of providers scheduling grids and capabilities.
- Ability to change from one modality (e.g., in-person appointment) to another (e.g., video telehealth)
- Baseline information on the providers (baseline information in further discussion)
- Ability to identify available resources (e.g., room, provider availability, support staff availability), and schedule an appointment requiring those resources, across multiple facilities (e.g., telehealth appointment where provider is at one VA facility while the Veteran and a support staff member is at another facility), including when those locations use different health records.
- Ability to interface with existing systems including VistA/CPRS, Oracle Cerner, GOV, along with others.
- Ability for system to understand/remember what resources are needed for a successful visit so scheduler does not have to track what’s needed or enter them each time an appointment is scheduled.
- Provides real-time changes in appointments scheduled, availability changes are reflected in down-stream apps, and provides appointment completion notification to provider, or no-show notifications.
- Provides automation for certain consults to schedule based on preset criteria…
CHALLENGES
- Scheduling staff continue to operate with complex scheduling processes and tools, increasing the time it takes to address Veterans’ needs.
- VA continues to build a roadmap for modernizing scheduling functionalities and enhancing provider-based views within the VA and in external communities.
- Facilities create their own processes, solutions and practices to address their needs, resulting in less enterprise-wide standardization and more variation in Veteran experiences…
