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VA delays health record go-live date to July
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of computing power will support improved weather forecasting when NOAA’s two new supercomputers come online in 2022
The Department of Veterans Affairs is delaying a planned initial deployment of its $16 billion electronic health record project by several months, but officials promise there will be added functionality at the go-live date.
VA Secretary Robert Wilkie announced the delay in February, just a few days after the firing of Deputy Sec- retary James Byrne, who was respon- sible for leading the project.
The VA was scheduled to deploy the commercial Cerner EHR software on March 28 at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Wash. The VA had planned to begin training staff in February on a system that was esti- mated to be 75% to 80% complete. That plan changed with the results of testing and, apparently, objections from end users. The revised schedule has Cerner going live in Spokane in July with close to 100% functionality.
During testimony at two congressio- nal hearings on Feb. 27, Dr. Richard Stone, executive in charge of the Vet- erans Health Administration, explained that overall development was the key sticking point.
“There \[are\] about 1,000 work pro- cesses that need to be written,” Stone told the House Veterans’ Affairs Com- mittee. “Those are substantially com- pleted. But once you finish those work processes, you’ve got to set that electronic medical record into a number of interfaces that plug into the rest of the system. There are 73
communicative or truthful with Con- gress,” she told a panel of witnesses.
Stone said the end of the second round of integration validation testing was the point at which the major com- munities at VHA — clinical, purchased care, pharmacy and financial — would weigh in.
“All said, we’re not ready,” Stone
interfaces. Nineteen are completed as of today, and that is why we are delayed.”
At an appropriations hearing the same day, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chairwoman of the subcommittee that funds VA, expressed surprise at the delay and anger at the lack of advance communication about the issue.
“Either you were surprised yourself or you were less than appropriately
said. “This is high-risk stuff. This is not a surprise to VHA.”
Stone added that a year ago, VHA had expressed concern about the development methodology and train- ing schedule to Byrne when he was acting deputy secretary.
“The iterative process of building just-in-time and training on products that are similar to your product doesn’t work for VHA,” Stone said.
— Adam Mazmanian
“There \[are\] about 1,000 work processes that need to be written.”
Dr. Richard Stone, Veterans Health Administration
FCW CALENDAR
3/25 Electronic records
NARA’s Lisa Haralampus, the Labor Department’s Laura Besong
and the Transportation Department’s Walter Bohorfoush are among the speakers at this FCW event on electronic records readiness and M-19-21 compliance.
Washington, D.C.
FCW.com/ElectronicRecords
4/1 Cybersecurity
The Defense Department’s Katie Arrington, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Judy
Baltensperger and the General Services Administration’s Pranjali Desai are among the speakers at FCW’s CDM Workshop. Washington, D.C.
FCW.com/CDM
6/11 WT Top 100
Washington Technology’s Top 100 list of government IT contractors
for 2020 will be announced at this evening celebration and networking event. Reston, Va. WashingtonTechnology.com/top100
March/April 2020 FCW.COM 3