The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded Philips a 10-year, $100 million contract to expand VA's critical care telehealth program, according to a July 8 news release.
The contract will allow VA to invest up to $100 million in tele-critical care technology and services, such as diagnostic imaging, sleep solutions and patient monitoring. The department's critical care telehealth program allows a team of critical care physicians and nurses to remotely monitor patients in the intensive care unit; VA manages 1,800 ICU beds at its facilities across the U.S.
In 2019, VA completed more than 2.5 million telehealth encounters and has further increased services due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Between February and May of 2020, VA expanded video to home appointments from about 10,000 to 120,000 visits per week.
VA comprises more than 1,700 care sites, and more than 50 percent of its hospitals use Philips imaging systems and more than 35 percent use Philips' critical care systems.