Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for rapid uptake of virtual care through the use of virtual health resources (VHR). In the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System, virtual care has been critical to maintaining healthcare access for patients during COVID-19. In the current study we describe primary care patient aligned care team (PACT) VHR use patterns within one VA medical center (i.e., hospital facility and five community-based outpatient clinics) pre- and post-COVID-19 onset. Methods: VHR provider and patient use data from 106 individual PACTs were extracted monthly between September 2019 to September 2020. Data were extracted from VHA web-based project application and tracking databases. Using longitudinal data, mixed effect models were used to compare pre- and post-COVID onset slopes. Results: Findings highlight an increase in patient users of secure messaging (SM) and telehealth. The rate of utilization among these patients increased for SM but not for telehealth visits or online prescription refill (RxRefill) use. Finally, VetLink Kiosk check ins that are done at in person visits, diminished abruptly after COVID-19 onset. Conclusions: These data provide a baseline of VHR use at the PACT level after the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and can inform healthcare delivery changes within the VA systems over time. Moreover, this project produced a data extraction blueprint, that is the first of its kind to track VA VHR use leveraging secondary data sources.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1370 |
| Journal | BMC health services research |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2022 |
Funding
This study was also supported in part by the Center of Innovation for Disability and Rehabilitation Research at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The authors would like to express a special thank you to the PACT teams at James A. Haley Veterans Hospital for their interest and support. The corresponding author, as a US government employee, has the right to grant on behalf of all authors and does grant on behalf of all authors, a nonexclusive worldwide license to the publishers and its licensees in perpetuity, in all forms, formats, and media (whether known now or created in the future) to (1) publish, reproduce, distribute, display, and store the contribution, (2) translate the contribution into other languages, create adaptations, reprints, include within collections and create summaries, extracts and/or, abstracts of the contribution, (3) create any other derivative work(s) based on the contribution, (4) to exploit all subsidiary rights in the contribution, (5) the inclusion of electronic links from the contribution to third-party material wherever it may be located, and (6) licensee any third party to do any or all of the above. The authors read and approved the final manuscript. The study was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Research and Development, Health Services Research and Development Service, (IIR 15–443 - Virtual Medical Modality Implementation Strategies for Patient Aligned Care Teams to Promote Veteran Centered Care) award number I01 HX002010.
Keywords
- COVID-19
- Data extraction
- Primary care
- Veteran
- Virtual care
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health Policy
