$215 Million to Help Rural Vets

This may be a Live-Vu kickoff! We are looking forward to working with the undersecretary to do a project in our local VISN.

$215 Million to Help Rural Vets
Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Department of Veterans Affairs has provided $215 million to improve access and quality of healthcare for veterans in rural areas. The funding will be used to support the latest technologies, to recruit and retain a well educated and trained healthcare workforce, and to collaborate with non-VA rural health community partners.

According to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, the funds will enable the VA to establish new outpatient clinics, expand collaborations with federal and community partners, accelerate the use of telemedicine deployment, explore innovative uses of technology, and fund pilot programs.

The VISNs, VA regional healthcare networks, and VHA program offices were allowed to submit up to eight proposed projects each for funding. The proposals were prioritized and then sent to the Office of Rural Health where they were evaluated based on methodology, feasibility, and the intended impact on rural veterans. ORH then selected 74 programs where many of the programs were either national in scope or affected multiple states.

VA's Information Tech Focus

Dr. Callaci's meeting Tuesday with the VA at the May 2009 Care Coordination and Telehealth Forms went well and shows great possibilities.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

VA's Information Tech Focus
The VA is requesting $3,307 billion for FY 2010 excluding the Recovery Act stimulus funding for $50.1 million. This is an increase of $559 million or 20 percent above 2009 to support Information and Technology.In April, President Obama along with Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Shinseki and Defense Secretary Gates, took the first step to create a Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record. The two Departments will leverage information sharing programs and infrastructure, expand existing initiatives, and implement health benefits and personnel communities as technology advances. DOD and VA are committed to achieving clinical interoperable EHR systems by September 30, 2009.

Seventy-five percent of adults believe it is very important for health care providers to use electronic health records

How Important Is It for Health Care Providers To Use Electronic Health Records?

Seventy-five percent of adults believe it is very important or somewhat important for health care providers to use electronic health records, according to a recent survey. However, 59% of adults said they are not too confident or not at all confident that their health information would remain confidential if stored electronically and shared online.