The CX Tipping Point®

EP 36 - How the VA's Innovation Ecosystem Reduced Veterans' Missed Medical Appointments featuring Dr. Indra Sandal & Gregory Goins

October 10, 2023 Dr. Indra Sandal & Gregory Goins, VA Season 3 Episode 36
EP 36 - How the VA's Innovation Ecosystem Reduced Veterans' Missed Medical Appointments featuring Dr. Indra Sandal & Gregory Goins
The CX Tipping Point®
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The CX Tipping Point®
EP 36 - How the VA's Innovation Ecosystem Reduced Veterans' Missed Medical Appointments featuring Dr. Indra Sandal & Gregory Goins
Oct 10, 2023 Season 3 Episode 36
Dr. Indra Sandal & Gregory Goins, VA

In this episode of The CX Tipping Point Podcast, Martha Dorris spoke with Dr. Indra Sandal, the Chief of Innovation at the Tampa Veterans Hospital and Mr. Greg Goins, the VISN 9 Network Director and Executive Sponsor of the VHA-Uber Health Connect Initiative. The Department of Veterans Affairs manages a very sophisticated innovation ecosystem that allows them to identify issues and pilot solutions in small ways to determine whether they should be scaled. In this example, they used it to provide veterans access to care.

Based on feedback from veterans, VA identified “transportation” as a major cause for missed medical appointments. With 56% of veterans over the age of 65; 30% relying on their families, solving the transportation issue was a “must”. The VA has partnered with UberHealth to provide transportation to medical appointments. The goal of this program was to:

  • Reduce no shows
  • Improve their experience of veterans with convenience?
  • Cost savings to VA hospitals

Learn how this initiative has been scaled to improve the health of veterans by serving more veterans; reducing the number of missed appointments; and saving the VA valuable funding as well.  

Dr. Sandal and Mr. Goins provided some inspirational messages - nothing is too small and nothing is impossible. Dream big!!

Show Notes

In this episode of The CX Tipping Point Podcast, Martha Dorris spoke with Dr. Indra Sandal, the Chief of Innovation at the Tampa Veterans Hospital and Mr. Greg Goins, the VISN 9 Network Director and Executive Sponsor of the VHA-Uber Health Connect Initiative. The Department of Veterans Affairs manages a very sophisticated innovation ecosystem that allows them to identify issues and pilot solutions in small ways to determine whether they should be scaled. In this example, they used it to provide veterans access to care.

Based on feedback from veterans, VA identified “transportation” as a major cause for missed medical appointments. With 56% of veterans over the age of 65; 30% relying on their families, solving the transportation issue was a “must”. The VA has partnered with UberHealth to provide transportation to medical appointments. The goal of this program was to:

  • Reduce no shows
  • Improve their experience of veterans with convenience?
  • Cost savings to VA hospitals

Learn how this initiative has been scaled to improve the health of veterans by serving more veterans; reducing the number of missed appointments; and saving the VA valuable funding as well.  

Dr. Sandal and Mr. Goins provided some inspirational messages - nothing is too small and nothing is impossible. Dream big!!