VA eScreening program: Technology to improve care for post-9/11 veterans

Abstract

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) provides health care services to a growing number of veterans. There is ample support for the use of technology-based self-screening to support health care delivery. We developed the VA eScreening program for veterans to directly provide self-report mental and physical health information through a veteran-facing portal that communicates with the electronic medical records system. A total of 1,372 newly enrolling veterans in 2 cohorts participated in a study to assess veteran satisfaction, determine accessibility and clinical processes, measure screening differences, and examine connection to care between eScreening and paper screening. Veterans who completed eScreening were slightly more satisfied with screening than those who completed paper screening. Accessibility, rate of screening completion, and clinical processes were significantly better with eScreening than paper screening. Except for higher alcohol use in the paper-based cohort, veterans who completed paper and eScreening were similar in the rates of positive health screens. Connection to VA services, rate and speed of vesting in the health care system, and time to document required suicide risk assessments were better with the VA eScreening program than paper screening. The VA eScreening program is a unique and promising tool that may leverage limited resources to improve screening and care for veterans. (PsycINFO Database Record