Dementia "e"-consults for Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia: Improving access to specialty dementia care for rural Veterans.

Objectives: This paper characterizes a telephone-based e-consult program designed to assess and treat behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) for older rural Veterans.

Methods: E-consults required geriatricians to conduct chart review and telephone calls to caregivers to determine behavior triggers, prior management attempts, and medications. Pharmacologic and non-pharmacological recommendations were provided with follow-up calls as needed.

Results: Evaluation of 364 Veterans (M age = 80.8, 32% in rural/distal clinics) showed 97% (n = 355) of E-consult interventions included caregiver dementia education to prepare them for managing disease progression and provide non-pharmacological strategies for BPSD. Ninety-four percent (n = 244) of Veterans received medication guidance. A total of 37,504 travel miles was saved, with an average of 108 miles for each Veteran.

Conclusions: Findings support continued implementation of telephone and other virtual modalities of assessing and treating BPSD for older Veterans, thereby increasing access to dementia specialists, especially for rural older adults and their caregivers. A limitation to e-consults is the time needed to provide services compared to the maximum workload credit allowed.

Clinical Implications: Virtual care improves access to Geriatric specialists and semi-urgent care that otherwise is not available. E-consults are effective in providing primary care providers guidance for diagnosis and management of dementia.