Last year, over 11,000 mobile devices (tablets) were deployed by the Veterans Administration to more than 30 medical facilities across the country as part of the “VA Mobile Health Provider Program” https://mobile.va.gov/providers. The devices are equipped with access to the VA network through Virtual Private Network (VPN) capabilities in the medical centers as well as off-site.
The tablets offer care teams immediate access to real-time clinical information and easy access to medical tools and apps. Public and VA-developed apps provide a variety of options and resources when looking up medications and other medical information.
The Washington D.C VA Medical Center www.washingtondc.va.gov is working very hard to reduce exposure risks for VA clinical staff and patients by taking advantage of mobile technology.
The Emergency Department (ED) is using iPads to enable on-the-go access to VA email, VA App Catalog, commercial mobile health apps, and to the Virtual Private Network (VPN) capabilities in the medical center as well as off-site.
As soon a patient arrives at the ED, and identified as possibly having a high-risk highly transmittable infectious disease, the patient is immediately moved to an isolation room with a nurse who then teaches the patient to use the iPad.
During the isolation period, any physician, infectious disease consultant, nurse, or other providers, can use the iPad to communicate with the patient remotely to collect the patient’s history, and to evaluate the presence of a high-risk infectious disease.
The benefit is that this approach enables multiple providers to communicate with patients with no risk of infection, while simultaneously expanding treatment options for patients. Patients are kept safe from potentially harmful outside exposure and can communicate even while they are under quarantined conditions.
The mobile devices are also equipped with cases that are waterproof, dirt proof, and easy to wipe down with disinfectant solutions, making the devices suitable for use in a clinical environment with potential infectious diseases.
Over the next year, VA will release a series of mobile apps that will allow for mobile-optimized access in real-time to the VA’s health IT system called VistA www.ehealth.va.gov/VISTA.asp and to VA’s Computerized Patient Records System (CPRS). These apps will enable care teams to write progress notes, enter a subset of orders, and complete other clinical tasks, as well as support specific common workflows.