VA Community Living Centers (CLCs) provide Veterans with nursing home care. Recently, staff at the Miles City VA CLC in Montana identified that a Veteran was having trouble swallowing. Due to staffing shortages in the area, there were no speech-language pathologists on-site or in the community available to perform the consultation that was needed.
CLCs in rural areas depend on VA Telehealth services to ensure Veterans receive proper specialized care without having to travel. So, staff at the Miles City VA CLC next devised a plan of action, one that would span the country over the next 24 hours. From the streets of Boston to the plains of Montana down to the mountains of western Colorado, VA providers worked together to approve and conduct the Veteran’s assessment through VA Video Connect.
“We have utilized VA Video Connect for a little over a year for Veterans’ screenings, for mental health, for urology, and for podiatry,” said Ashley Hubbell, Miles City nurse manager. “Veterans don’t have to travel two hours to see those specialists. We’re able to do it right here in the CLC. We’ve really grabbed telehealth by the horns.”
