New VA App Links to Your Smartphone

Have a smartphone? You might want to keep an eye on a new app being designed for the Department of Veterans Affairs that will help you get medical appointments and care more quickly.

As part of the Faster Care for Veterans Act of 2016, the VA awarded a pilot program contract to design an app you can use on a computer, smartphone or tablet to get primary or specialty care, as well as mental-health appointments. You’ll also be able to manage your in-person and telehealth appointments, see what appointments are available and get reminders or prompts about follow-up appointments.

The designer, Document Storage Systems, has been in the business for 25 years and has run a successful scheduling program at Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis. The pilot program will last for 18 months at three Veterans Integrated Service Networks.

The VA currently has an app for booking primary-care appointments at 99 VA facilities. The Mobile Veterans Appointment Request has good reviews, but this new app has a specific feature the other doesn’t: With the new app you can schedule your own specialty-care and mental-health appointments and see real-time appointment availability slots, instead of leaving a text message for a scheduling clerk to help set up an appointment. (They have five days to reply under the current app.)

Do I sound hopeful? I am. Granted, there’s always the chance of a glitch, but tapping in an appointment choice seems better than waiting five days to learn whether you have your preferred appointment time and date.

Let’s hope the new app can notify you if lab work is needed before your scheduled appointment. The current app doesn’t do that.

Keep an eye on mobile. va.gov to see if your area is part of the pilot program.