VA to launch online medical appointment scheduling by 2017
By Rajiv Leventhal – Healthcare Informatics
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) plans to launch online medical appointment scheduling nationwide in January, according to a report in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
According to the Nov. 9 report, “The agency’s more than 6 million patients will be able to schedule primary-care appointments through an app on their phones, tablets or computers. VA officials hope to add mental-health appointments to the list in the future, in addition to optometry and audiology.”
VA’s healthcare scheduling system has been in the public eye for a few years now, ever since a 2014 report issued by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) highlighted the negligence from hospital officials and staff members at the Veterans Health Affairs medical center in Phoenix for not placing veterans on the electronic waiting list and undermining scheduling procedures. In total, the OIG report revealed the electronic waiting list system was missing at least 1,700 veterans who were not scheduled for an appointment.
