6/1/2023 Grand Rounds

Chizelle Onochie, MD
Resident Physician, PGY-4, Department of Psychiatry, Boston Medical Center
Clinical Instructor, Boston University School of Medicine

The Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Residential Treatment Program (SARRTP) at Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center currently has low attendance rates for post-discharge outpatient psychiatry follow-up appointments. Many veterans at Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center (JP VAMC) have identified access to health care providers/mental health appointments as a barrier to care. The goal of the Improving Appointment Attendance through MyHealtheVet: A Quality Improvement Initiative is to improve attendance rates to outpatient psychiatry follow-up appointments post-SARRTP discharge by providing MyHealtheVet premium account upgrades. MyHealtheVet, the VA’s online personal health record for veterans, allows for veterans to communicate securely with the VA health care team about non-urgent information or questions. It also allows veterans to manage upcoming appointments, get email reminders, and schedule/cancel VA appointments. Appointment attendance was measured by calculating the no-show rate for appointments prior to the QI intervention and after the QI intervention was implemented.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the extent of the “no show” rate for post-discharge patients at this VA center.

2. Describe the improvements made to the online appointment system for the clinic.

3. Discuss the appointment attendance situation following the system improvements.