The VA’s EHR Modernization, the centerpiece of which is a brand new Cerner EHR, has been off to a rocky start. Early deployments in Washington state locations were plagued by unreliable data and outages, leading for pushes from Congress to delay further implementations. Further into last year, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill requiring increased reporting and outcome measurement. The project has ballooned in cost by billions of dollars, partially due to reporting practices, and is currently on hold until June as the VA and Cerner continue to work through the issues.
Moving from the Senate to the House, two new bills were introduced that would further slow deployments or even scrap the modernization project altogether. The tamer of the two bills was brought to capitol hill by Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) would allow go-lives at more locations to resume once certain certifications were achieved. These items include maintaining 99.9% uptime, technical fixes, and signoffs from directors and chiefs of staff indicating that the system is functioning properly and provides a benefit for patients.
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) has decided he’d rather blow the whole thing up. If his bill passes, it would require, within 180 days, disbanding the modernization office, transferring any remaining work to the VA or Office of Information and Technology, and reverting back to the old EHR known as VistA. Rolling back the clock on an already aging system may not be so palatable, but it’s hard to argue with Rosendale’s criticism of the project. The VA has spent $5 Billion on a system that’s only active in a select group of locations and it’s not even performing well there.
The fact is, it’s likely that last summer’s bill on reporting requirements isn’t enough to fix these rollouts. That means there’s a reasonable window to pass a bill aimed at salvaging the project. While the severity of the fixes will be up for debate, the quick introduction of these bills indicates that there’s an appetite to get to work on the issue.
Luckily for users of Extract’s HealthyData software, it doesn’t matter what brand of EHR or DMS you’re using as it delivers data and documents to any repository you have. While we can’t rollout your new EHR for you, we have a wealth of experience modernizing document workflows. Unstructured? Non-interfaced? No problem. Our software sorts, indexes, and extracts from your toughest documents so your employees can be their most effective and work at the top of their licensures.
If you’re interested in seeing what we’ve done for other healthcare organizations, take a look at our resources page where you can find case studies, video presentations, and handouts.
About the Author: Chris Mack
Chris is a Marketing Manager at Extract with experience in product development, data analysis, and both traditional and digital marketing. Chris received his bachelor’s degree in English from Bucknell University and has an MBA from the University of Notre Dame. A passionate marketer, Chris strives to make complex ideas more accessible to those around him in a compelling way.