Juno Beach, Fla.-based health IT company Document Storage Systems, Inc. (DSS, Inc.) has been awarded a $19.6 million contract to install an online patient self-scheduling system for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
As part of the Faster Care for Veterans Pilot Program, which was developed in response to the “Faster Care for Veterans Act of 2016,” the VA is seeking to utilize a commercially available, off-the-shelf online patient self-scheduling system. According to DSS, the solution will enhance the ability for patients to schedule and confirm medical appointments to improve access to care for Veterans.
“Patient self-scheduling is a core solution that addresses the fundamental challenge of providing the right access to care,” Mark Byers, president and CEO of DSS, Inc., said in a statement. “We are proud to be playing a key role in helping to support Congressional mandates that allow Veterans to schedule and confirm medical appointments through their mobile devices. This allows Veterans to feel like true partners in their care processes.”
DSS, Inc. will be leveraging its ForSite2020 scheduling software solution suite, to provide a VistA-integrated, Veteran self-scheduling portal with a back-end module for configuring business rules. ForSite2020 self-scheduling incorporates alerts that use VA rules to identify and prevent potential scheduling issues by indicating where prerequisite services are required for a particular patient, according to the company.
With this solution, veterans will be able to schedule, modify, and cancel appointments for primary care, specialty care, and mental health from a PC or any mobile device, manage appointments regardless of whether the care is provided in person or through telehealth services and view appointment availability in real-time.
Also, DSS says that the online patient self-scheduling system will enable veterans to take advantage of prompts or reminders to schedule follow-up appointments and schedule and manage medical appointments 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
In addition to being implemented in medical facilities outside of the VA, the full enterprise scheduling solution ForSite2020 RMS (which self-scheduling is a component of) has been used by the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Indianapolis since 2000.
The DSS, Inc. team is comprised of Insignia Technology Services, Ideal System Solutions, Inc., Minburn Technology Group, LLC, and Rainmakers Strategic Solutions, LLC.
