“The Department of Veterans Affairs will implement a new, commercial, off-the-shelf patient scheduling system by 2025, two years later than VA originally advertised to Congress.”
“VA has chosen to implement a scheduling solution from Cerner, the same contractor that’s spearheading its electronic health record modernization efforts, which the department said will mirror a similar, successful pilot it launched several years ago.”
“For VA, the decision to implement Cerner’s scheduling solution just made financial and practical sense, especially as the department works to implement an electronic record that’s interoperable across multiple spaces.”
“’Interoperability objectives… are more readily achieved by being on the same common solution. There is a cost to integrating platforms,’ John Windom, executive director of VA’s Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization (OEHRM), said last week at a hearing on VA’s scheduling system plans. ‘We paid for the Cerner licenses as part of the EHR contract. It made business sense to not duplicate that payment by installing another system.’”
“But Congress is still concerned VA is scrapping a successful scheduling pilot, which saw improved processing times, less overtime and less turnover among the department’s patient appointment schedulers…” Read the full article here.
Source: Why VA is scrapping a successful pilot in favor of Cerner’s scheduling system – By Nicole Ogrysko, September 30, 2019. Federal News Network.
