“On the frontlines of innovation, the Department of Veteran Affairs’ Office of Information and Technology (OIT) is battling the COVID-19 pandemic shoulder to shoulder with our VA partners while maintaining the department’s mission: to care for America’s 20 million veterans.”
“OIT’s digital transformation strategy prepared VA to more than double its hardware and IT infrastructure capacity, transition to a remote workforce and deliver critical services to veterans and VA medical facilities across the nation at the onset of COVID-19.”
Enabling a remote workforce to deliver on mission objectives
“As the number of COVID-19 cases rose, OIT enabled a nearly three-fold increase in VA’s remote workforce that could continue to serve America’s veterans while helping their communities flatten the curve. OIT promptly expanded network access via the Department’s RESCUE virtual private network and Citrix Access Gateway to provision an ultimate capacity of 500,000 users with RESCUE and more than 130,000 users with CAG.”
“Conference tools, such as VA Video Connect, are keeping staff connected to veteran patients, and other video conferencing tools like Webex and Microsoft Teams connect internal teams. Additionally, more than 225,000 laptops and 100,000 mobile devices are being purchased and deployed for staff members at Veterans Health Administration (VHA) sites.”
Meeting veterans’ needs with telehealth
“VA’s investment in telehealth over the past decade and dedication to serving nearly 5.2 million veterans living in rural communities positioned the department to rapidly expand delivery of care. Today, telehealth platforms enable non-COVID-19 patients (and those experiencing mild symptoms) to be treated from home, limiting unnecessary exposure…” Read the full article here.
Source: How digital transformation supports the VA during the pandemic – By James Gfrerer, November 3, 2020. GCN.
