The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in an Aug. 1 report that the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Health Administration (VHA) component needs to do more work to set performance goals and assess the effectiveness of a program that provides telehealth services to veterans who lack internet services.
VHA’s Accessing Telehealth at Local Area Stations (ATLAS) program launched in 2019 to provide private locations equipped with high-speed internet service for veterans to use to access telehealth services.
Usage of some of those facilities has been spotty, however. GAO pointed out in the report that during 2022-2023, 14 of the 24 locations set up by the ATLAS program received no patient visits.
The watchdog agency said VHA plans to expand the program but has not yet figured out how it will assess whether the program is making progress.
To increase the program’s efficiency, GAO recommended that VHA set measurable goals, collect performance data, and use this data to assess results and guide decisions to increase use of telehealth services at ATLAS sites and increase awareness of the program.
“Setting goals and measures – consistent with GAO’s leading practices for measuring performance – and using them to assess effectiveness and efficiency on an ongoing basis would help VHA determine whether it should make changes to the program,” GAO said, including “adjusting its strategies to address low ATLAS site usage.”
GAO noted that VHA has developed standards and processes to monitor the quality of its broader telehealth programs, and that those processes are being credited by officials from medical centers and regional networks with helping to improve the quality of telehealth services.
According to GAO, VHA agreed with the watchdog’s recommendations and “identified planned actions to address them.”
