“House appropriators are concerned that the Department of Veterans Affairs is seeking to fully fund its program to switch from its homegrown Vista system to Cerner’s commercial electronic health record in 2022, despite having unspent funds from fiscal year 2021.”
“Implementation of the 10-year Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program was halted this year over concerns about patient safety and the adequacy of training at the initial deployment site of Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Wash. VA Secretary Denis McDonough instituted a “strategic review” in March that wrapped in July during which deployments were paused.”
“With the review completed, VA is hoping to continue deployment across Veterans Integrated Service Network 20, which includes Mann-Grandstaff and other sites in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, as well as in VISN 10, which includes Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.”
“At a hearing on Thursday, held almost one year after the go-live date, VA Deputy Secretary Donald Remy said the agency was seeking the $2.66 billion for the program for FY2022 included in the Biden administration’s budget submission, even though there is money left over from FY2021 because the FY2021 appropriation for the program is good for three fiscal years…”
“Part of the funding issue for lawmakers is that VA’s initial cost estimate of $16 billion for the 10-year program has proved to be unreliable, because it didn’t take into account physical and IT infrastructure upgrades needed at VA sites before the bandwidth-hungry Cerner application could be deployed. A pair of agency inspector general reports found that VA underestimated physical infrastructure costs by $2.6 billion, and IT infrastructure costs by $2.5 billion, elevating the total program cost to more than $21 billion…” Read the full article here.
Source: VA seeks full 2022 funding for health record project, despite six-month pause – By Adam Mazmanian, October 21, 2021. FCW.
