“The Government Accountability Office recommended in a Feb. 11 audit that the Veterans Affairs Department postpone additional deployments of its new electronic health records system until numerous issues are resolved.”
“Two years after inking a $10 billion contract to acquire a commercial health records system, VA deployed its first instance of the software in October at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington.”
“An audit released Feb. 11 indicates VA deployed the software without addressing all technical issues it identified that could have brought the system crashing down.”
“’Specifically, 17 critical severity test findings and 361 high severity test findings remained open as of late September 2020,’ the audit states. ‘As a result, VA was at risk of deploying a system that did not perform as intended and could negatively impact the likelihood of its successful adoption by users if these test findings were not resolved prior to initial deployment.’”
“Ultimately, GAO’s audit concludes VA addressed each critical severity test finding and all but 55 remaining high severity test findings, using a combination of ‘workarounds that were accepted by the user community’ to comply with recommendations GAO made in October.”
“’Nevertheless, as the department moves forward with deployment of additional capabilities at new locations, VA will likely identify new critical and high severity test findings,’ the audit states. ‘If VA does not close or appropriately address all critical and high severity test findings prior to deploying at future locations, the system may not perform as intended…’” Read the full article here.
Source: GAO Recommends VA Pause EHR Deployment to Resolve Issues – By Frank Konkel, February 11, 2021. Nextgov.
