Loma Linda VA Program Goes National

Any tool that helps a physician keep close contact with his patients is a great tool, says Dr. John Byrne.

“Patients are sometimes tough to find,” said Byrne, an internal medicine physician with the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Center, commonly known as the Loma Linda Veterans Affairs. “You call. You have to leave messages. They don’t always get back to you right away.”

Enter the Internet and HealtheVets, a web-based program recently launched nationwide at veterans medical hospitals. The program allows VA center patients online access to doctors, pharmacists and nurses, even appointment makers.

The program is near to the hearts of the staff at Loma Linda, who created the program that has now gone national, officials said.

“We had what we called ‘the portal’ system,” said Sharon Hartman, HealtheVet coordinator. The original program is about eight years old and worked much the same as the HealtheVets.

Veterans registered with the portal and were given access to a secured website where they could communicate with VA physicians, Hartman said. The idea caught the eye of the national organization, who began to look into the website.

“When national wanted to build a site, they used people from our site to work on theirs,” Hartman said.

The portal is still in use, but many of the patients are slowly being moved to the national site, Byrne said.

“Now with the national system, it has more bells and whistles than we built into ours,” Byrne said.

HealtheVets lets patients enter blood pressure numbers and blood sugar levels for their doctors to examine. A computer program then graphs the numbers so the patient can track their own progress.

They may also ask any type of question that comes to mind thanks a group of people who triage with messages, Byrne said.

The site also allows patients to order prescription refills. Information on each medication is listed on the site and users can click on links to pages that list what the medication does and its side effects.

“Its personalized care and it encourages vets to take charge of their own health,” Hartman said.

The site is not just for veterans, Hartman said. Anyone may visit the main pages that are filled with information on a number of conditions.

Byrne was just glad there was a place where people could safely ask questions.

“I think it’s pretty cool thing that that vets can e-mail their doctor,” Byrne said.