News and Events
Calendar
Email Us
See Us On Flickr
Screen ReaderNews and Events
Senator Lincoln and General Shinseki Talk Rural Health Care at Little Rock VA
(Little Rock) On Tuesday, August 11, the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock hosted a presentation by Director Mike Winn on medical telecommunications with rural areas of Arkansas. Supporters, Senator Blanche Lincoln and Secretary of Veterans Affairs General (Ret.) Eric Shinseki, were on hand to discuss rural health care in Arkansas to the crowd of veteran leaders and VA staff members.
General Shinseki had been invited by Senator Lincoln to tour one of the VA hospitals in Arkansas. Of particular concern has been the large number of individuals returning to Arkansas who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many guardsmen live in rural communities.
Travel distance for many veterans of the state to the VA hospitals can be difficult. Local Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) offer a source for veterans to get the help and care they need and in addition lessen the travel time they would need to see a doctor in person.
Dr. Greg Wooten conducted a demonstration of telehealth / medicine with LCSW Mary Beth Lowry of the Mena CBOC that allows for patient / doctor discussions or examinations via remote. The doctor, or health professional, on the other end of the camera can advise the patient about issues regarding tests and follow-up care instructions.
Video teleconferencing (VTC) systems are becoming more common place in rural health care clinics across the state offering veterans preventative and basic mental health care services in addition to diagnostic services, such as retinal screening for diabetes.
The VA will open new CBOCs in Searcy, Ozark and Helena in 2009 and two additional clinics in Conway and Russellville in 2010. At that time, the VA will have a total of 16 CBOCs statewide. It is expected that each CBOC will have VTC access.
