AAMC Webinar: Learn About the VA’s New External Provider Scheduling System to Enhance Community Care Appointments - April 24

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) recently introduced a groundbreaking automated digital scheduling system, External Provider Scheduling (EPS), designed to enhance community care appointments by reducing wait times, streamlining scheduling processes, connecting to authorizations to providers, and interfacing directly into any electronic health record systems. During this webinar, officials from the VHA will explain how providers will be able to dictate the VA’s visibility into your scheduling system, and the way complete referral authorizations numbers are provided at the time the appointment is made. Speakers from the VA and the Medical University of South Carolina will describe how they have implemented this new scheduling system to improve scheduling processes and expedite authorizations. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions once the presentation is concluded.

Richard Marble
Solution Train Engineer, Office of Integrated Veteran Care
Veterans Health Administration

Rick Marble is an action-oriented leader able to design and implement strategies to meet the organizational vision by working with teams to gain understanding and then guiding them to optimize and innovate. Rick’s experience includes initial adoption of Agile Development principles with both government and commercial development teams beginning in 2006. He has led lean and agile transformations in product development and IT services.  Additionally, Rick background includes coaching, training, instructional systems design, and process improvement.

Rick has been working with the Department of Veteran Affairs since 2015.  He has led several IT Agile development projects for the Community Care Product Line including the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Community Care Reimbursement System (CCRS), Integrated Product Environment (IPE) and Community Administration of Vaccine Encounters (CAVE) project, and the DevSecOps & Automation initiatives for the Community Care. He currently is assigned to the Veteran Health Administration (VHA) Office of Integrated Veteran Care Access Transformation directorate where he leads External Provider Scheduling and is the Solution Train Engineer for the

VA Health Connect clinical contact centers and several other access initiatives. Rick is a certified Release Train Engineer, Product Owner/Product Manager, and scrum master. He has been leading projects for over 20 years in the military, commercial, and federal environments. Rick retired from the US Air Force after 26 year and has a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Management (BSITM).

Mark S. Hausman, MD, FACHE
Executive Director, Access Transformation, Office of Integrated Veteran Care
Veterans Health Administration

Effective February 26, 2023, Dr. Mark Hausman was appointed as Executive Director, Access Transformation (AT) for the VHA Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC). In this role, he is responsible for supporting the Assistant Under Secretary for Health for IVC in leading VA’s efforts to enhance access to care for Veterans and beneficiaries.  

Prior being selected as the Executive Director for AT, Dr. Hausman served as Special Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Under Secretary for Health for IVC. He also served as Chief of Staff at the Lieutenant Colonel Charles S. Kettle VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he was responsible for oversight of all clinical service lines. He served in various clinical roles, including Chief of Anesthesiology and Director of the Surgical ICU at the Lieutenant Colonel Charles S. Kettle VAMC.

Dr. Hausman received his Doctor of Medicine degree from University of Michigan and his Bachelors of Biological Sciences degree from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. He is certified with the American Board of Anesthesiology for Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine as well as a Fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives.

David L. Omura, DPT, MHA, MSA
Acting Executive Director, Strategy and Program Integration Clinical Services
Veterans Health Administration

David L. Omura was appointed Medical Center Director/CEO for the Columbia VA Health Care System on March 19, 2017, and was sworn in as a member of the Senior Executive Service on March 20, 2017. Dr. Omura provides oversight and leadership of a healthcare system that includes a medical center located in Columbia, SC; and seven Community Based Outpatient Clinics that cover 2/3rd the state of South Carolina.  In fiscal year 2023, the Columbia VA Health Care System’s 2,950 staff served more than 90,000 Veterans, provided over 1.1M outpatients visits, admitted over 2,400 patients all while operating successfully within their $1B budget. Currently Dr. Omura is serving as a Senior Advisor to the VHA Office of Integrated Veteran Care where he is co-leading the national rollout of the VA’s largest community care scheduling platform. He is also serving as the Acting Executive Director for Strategy and Program Integration for the Office of Clinical Services. Dr. Omura also serves on the VHA Data Governance Council and is the Chair of the Data Governance Council’s Workforce Sub-Council which is focused on VHA efforts on data training, engagement, and succession planning.

Prior to Dr. Omura’s appointment to this role, he served as the Medical Center Associate Director/Chief Operations Officer since September 2012. In this role, he was held operational oversight over fiscal, human resources, engineering, safety, privacy, logistics, and the business office. Preceding his roles in executive leadership, Dr. Omura served in clinical and administrative roles both at the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System and the University of Florida Health System.

Eugene S. Hong, MD, CAQSM, FAAFP, FAMSSM
Chief Physician Executive
MUSC Health and MUSC Physicians

Dr. Eugene S. Hong is the Chief Physician Executive for MUSC Physicians and MUSC Health. In this role, Dr. Hong serves as a member of the MUSC Health Executive Leadership team and as an Executive Committee officer for the Physician’s Practice Plan.

Prior to joining MUSC in March, 2018, Dr. Hong spent 15 years at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA where he held numerous roles to include Drexel University Physician Board Chair, Associate Dean for Primary Care and Community Health, the Hamot and Sturgis Endowed Chair of the Department of Family, Community and Preventive Medicine, Chief of the Division of Sports Medicine, Fellowship Director of Drexel Sports Medicine, and Residency Director of Drexel Family Medicine. Previously, he served as the Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Sports Medicine for the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Hong’s professional research and clinical interests include the areas of concussions, tendinopathy and tendinosis; injury prevention; acute and chronic injury and illness related to sports and exercise; exercise science, mental health in athletes, and the health and wellness of athletes of all ages and abilities.