“At the end of last month, President Trump dismissed VA Secretary David Shulkin, MD, following weeks of speculation that he would do just that. In Shulkin’s place, Trump nominated his personal White House physician, Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, a physician who’s never managed a large healthcare organization.”
“Shulkin’s dismissal left unsigned the contract with Cerner to replace the VA’s venerable VistA healthcare IT platform. It’s not that the Cerner deal is really threatened without Shulkin—VA watchers still expect that his replacement will sign the contract—it’s that no one can be sure when that might happen if the Senate balks at confirming Jackson due to his lack of organizational management experience and other budget and programmatic concerns.”
“Specific to the Cerner decision, what should the new VA secretary consider?”
“How the current VA staff feels about VistA: When Shulkin was dismissed, Healthcare IT News seized the opportunity to ask readers for their opinions. Among VistA users, a majority said they want to keep the existing system and make necessary changes…”
“The future of healthcare IT: The stickler for healthcare IT moving forward is interoperability. The key to solving this challenge system-wide is not to make sure every clinician uses the same system. That’s just blatantly not the way to rectify a technological challenge. The choice of Cerner does not automatically make communication with DoD easier, it just…” Read the full article here.
Source: Why the VA Should Stick with VistA and Not Waste $16 Billion on a Replacement – By Irv Lichtenwald, April 18, 2018. Open Health News.
