Veterans in Butler County — and across the nation — have a new tool to help connect them with health care services.

VEText, a new text messaging system developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, will remind veterans of upcoming appointments via text.

“Our goal is to offer a quick and easy way to confirm and/or cancel VA appointments and then make every attempt to schedule another veteran into that time slot,” said Alan Petrazzi, VA Butler Healthcare’s interim director.

Veterans who need to cancel an appointment simply respond to the system’s text alert with “cancel” and the slot immediately becomes available for another veteran.

VA officials said the system automatically enrolled any veteran with a cell phone number listed on their health record. Veterans can update their phone numbers during check-in at their next appointment at the VA, officials said, or use a self-service kiosk.

The text alerts only deal with VA health care appointments, and do not replace the letters and automated phone calls veterans already receive for appointment reminders, VA officials said.

Veterans who want to opt out of the service should reply “STOP” to the next VEText message they receive.