title: Development of a Sleep Telementorship Program for Rural Department of Veterans Affairs Primary Care Providers: Sleep Veterans Affairs Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Primary care providers (PCPs) frequently encounter sleep complaints, especially in regions with limited specialty care access.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (VA-ECHO) program (based on Project ECHO) has successfully provided rural PCP education in subspecialty areas, including hepatitis C. We describe the feasibility of an ECHO program for sleep medicine.
  
  
  METHODS
  ECHO creates a virtual learning community through video-teleconferencing, combining didactics with individualized clinical case review. We invited multidisciplinary providers to attend up to 10 stand-alone, 1-hour sessions. Invitees completed a needs assessment, which guided curriculum development. After program completion, we examined participant characteristics and self-reported changes in practice and comfort with managing sleep complaints. We surveyed participation barriers among invitees with low/no attendance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 39 program participants, 38% worked in rural healthcare. Participants included nurse practitioners (26%), registered nurses (21%), and physicians (15%). Seventeen (44%) completed the summative program evaluation. Respondents anticipated practice change from the program, especially in patient education about sleep disorders (93% of respondents). Respondents reported improved comfort managing sleep complaints, especially sleep-disordered breathing, insomnia, and sleep in post-traumatic stress disorder (80% of respondents each). A follow-up survey of program invitees who attended zero to two sessions reported scheduling conflicts (62%) and lack of protected time (52%) as major participation barriers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participants in a pilot sleep medicine VA-ECHO program report practice change and increased comfort managing common sleep complaints. Future work is needed to identify objective measures of return on investment and address participation barriers.
authors.affiliation: 1 Pulmonary and Critical Care Section, and.|2 Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care.
authors.forename: Elizabeth C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Parsons
authors.affiliation: 1 Pulmonary and Critical Care Section, and.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Mattox
authors.affiliation: 3 General Medicine Service, and.|4 Health Services Research and Development Center for Innovation, Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington.|5 Division of General Internal Medicine, and.
authors.forename: Lauren A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Beste
authors.affiliation: 1 Pulmonary and Critical Care Section, and.|4 Health Services Research and Development Center for Innovation, Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington.|2 Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care.
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Au
authors.affiliation: 6 Nephrology Section, Hospital and Specialty Medicine.|4 Health Services Research and Development Center for Innovation, Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington.|7 Division of Nephrology and Kidney Research Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Bessie A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: 8 Gastroenterology and Hepatology Service, Veterans Affairs Portland Health Care System, Portland, Oregon; and.|9 Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division, Oregon Health & Sciences University, Portland, Oregon.
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: 1 Pulmonary and Critical Care Section, and.|2 Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care.
authors.forename: Brian N
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Palen
mesh_terms: D020375:Education, Distance / Q000379:methods*; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012424:Rural Population; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000628:therapy; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000628:therapy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs; D058014:Veterans Health; D049269:Videoconferencing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Veterans health; distance education; health services accessibility; rural health; sleep apnea syndromes