VA medical record overhaul could be completed by 2028

| October 22, 2021

According to VA officials, delays will not change their projection that the VA medical record overhaul will be done sometime in 2028. This overhaul would put the VA’s system on the same platform as the DOD’s system. Those who join the military will be able to access their medical records in one place from the time they join the military through the rest of their lives.

From the Military Times:

Remy’s statement was met with skepticism from members of the committee, who noted years of missteps and failures with the medical records effort.

“We’ve had a long string of leaders at the VA tell us that the intention is to finish in 10 years, that the intention is to be transparent, that the intention is to not affect patient safety. And none of that ever happens,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., chairwoman of the committee’s panel on veterans issues.

In 2018, President Donald Trump’s administration announced plans for a 10-year, $16-billion overhaul of VA’s medical records with the goal of putting the veterans system on the same platform as the Department of Defense. The idea was to provide a single, flexible and lifelong records system for troops and veterans, a goal of outside advocates for years.

But in March, after more than three years of work, department leaders halted the program after uncovering serious problems — including potential patient safety issues — with the roll out.

That delayed planned deployment of the new system — Cerner’s Millennium software — at several sites this year, and raised questions about the long-term viability of the project.

Remy acknowledged the patient safety issues — issues like missing medical information or potential medication conflicts — presented a serious threat, but he also said none of the problems resulted in harm to any patients at the initial rollout sites.

Military Times has the full article here.

Category: Veterans' Affairs Department

6 Comments
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KoB

Ten years? We put people on the Moon in less time. Throwing a BS Flag on this. Follow the money.

Roh-Dog

$16B and halted the program because the oblivious saw the obvious.
Money well spent!

I’m going to say it again, because it bears repeating ad nauseam; everything the government touches turns to shit.

SFC E

Would be just in time for my retirement!

(…yeah, real world, it’ll be years AFTER I retire…)

26Limabeans

Used to be the veteran shows up for an appointment with the first stop at the records window.
The records folder was then hand carried by the veteran to the doctors office.
At the end of the appointment the records folder was returned by a guy with a cart that would
visit the various offices for that purpose.
It was common to see veterans in the hallways leaning against the wall, reading their records.
Pretty easy to remove or edit stuff. That was back in the late 80’s.

C2Show

Amazing…they announced this at start of Trump Administration. 2028 is the firm date…what a joke.

Funny to see VA Doc still using some archaic system to request for DoD Medical facility records. When sure VA and DoD just had to agree interoperability system line blue button or tricare online.

timactual

I wonder how many records will be lost during the process.