A study published this past week in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open found that receipt of video-enabled tablets during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with more psychotherapy visits and reduced emergency department use among veterans.  

The study, which was led by researchers from VA Palo Alto Healthcare System in Menlo Park, California, examined nearly 500,000 rural veterans who had a history of mental healthcare use.  

"To our knowledge, this study was the largest evaluation of a health system intervention to distribute video-enabled telehealth tablets to patients with access barriers and mental health needs," wrote researchers.  

WHY IT MATTERS  

As the researchers noted in their piece, U.S. veterans are experiencing a mental health crisis, with a suicide rate 1.5 times higher than non-veterans.  

Veterans in rural areas are also more likely to die by suicide than those in urban areas.  

And the COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened factors such as isolation and reduced interactions with healthcare professionals.  

During the pandemic, the Department of Veterans Affairs intensified existing efforts to distribute video-enabled tablets to veterans facing barriers to care.  

For this study, researchers included all rural patients with at least one VA mental healthcare visit in the year 2019, examining the outcomes for veterans who received tablets between March 16, 2020 and April 30, 2021.  

They found that tablets were associated with increased psychotherapy visits across all modalities and a decrease in the likelihood of emergency department visits, including those related to suicide.  

"These results reinforced a previous finding that tablets improved continuity of mental health care, and extended prior work by showing tablet-associated reductions in ED visits and suicide behavior," wrote the researchers.  

They noted that the scope of the study was limited, given that they couldn't examine "all potential mechanisms through which tablets may reduce suicide behavior and ED visits."  

"Future studies should examine the range of mechanisms and outcomes tablets can influence, as well as tablet-associated program and utilization costs," they said.  

"As these results may not readily generalize to non-VA settings, studies examining device-enabled virtual care outside the VA are also needed," they added.  

THE LARGER TREND  

The VA has continued to ramp up its telemedicine efforts for patients around the country during the pandemic.   

In September 2021, it offered a billion-dollar contract opportunity aimed at procuring remote patient monitoring and telemedicine devices to be distributed at VA facilities.  

Such initiatives are displaying results: Just this week, another VA study showed the potential benefits of telehealth when it comes to stroke patients.   

ON THE RECORD  

"This cohort study of the VA’s distribution of video-enabled tablets to rural veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that tablet-receipt was associated with increased video mental health service use, increased psychotherapy visits, reduced suicide behavior and reduced ED visits," said researchers in the JAMA Network Open study. 

"These findings suggest that the VA and other health systems should consider leveraging video-enabled tablets for improving access to mental health care via telehealth and for preventing suicides among rural residents," they said.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Email: kjercich@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.