- Lawmaker Calls VA EHR Modernization Cost, Timeline ‘Outrageous’
“I don’t ever remember being so outraged about an issue as I am about the electronic health record program,” Granger said. “I can’t believe that the program managers think it is acceptable to wait another four years for the EHR modernization program to be implemented when we’ve spent billions of dollars and worked on it for over a decade,” she said.
“Our service members and veterans are the ones who are suffering while they are waiting for the DoD and VA [Department of Veterans Affairs] to get their act together,” Granger said.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan responded: “I have spent quite a bit of time on the new DHA [Defense Health Agency] plan on how do we merge together our medical treatment facilities and how do we deploy the electronic health record.”
Shanahan related that the DoD had completed the first phase of the EHR modernization in the Pacific Northwestern last fall. The next phase is scheduled for this fall in California, with system-wide completion expected in 2023.
The DoD EHR modernization is estimated to cost $5.5 billion, up from the original $4.3 billion. The DoD asked for the funding increase to establish a standardized EHR baseline with the US Coast Guard and the VA, which is also modernizing its EHR system on the same platform.
In the first phase, DoD deployed the new EHR at four sites in order to identify and address problems and use lessons learned for the next phases of deployment.
The initial EHR deployment resulted in a decrease in the percentage of emergency-department patients who left without being seen, the use of patient risk-alert functions leading to enhanced clinical decision making, and a substantial reduction in the number of duplicate lab tests, according to the DoD.
“I can give you a commitment that the corrective actions and lesson learned in the first implementation will be carried forward into the California implementation. It’s training, it’s process; it’s not just the electronic health records,” he added.
Rogers Chimes In About EHR Interoperability
Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) said that he has been hearing the same assurances for 10 years about the EHR modernization. “It’s incredible that we can’t get this fixed. In the meantime, we’ve got young veterans dying, going blind, suffering interminable illness because of bureaucratic crap.”
Rogers said that the DoD and VA have for too long failed to link their two EHR systems so that the VA can get the medical information it needs to help veterans wounded during combat.
Addressing Shanahan, Rogers said, “I have heard your predecessors say, ‘We’ve got it on the way. The fix is in.’ That’s been for 10 years, and we’ve poured billions on dollars into this seemingly simple problem.”
Shanahan said that the technical complexity of EHR interoperability has been the “crux of the problem. I owe it to you and this committee to deliver on capability, and I'll do my best.”
Rogers responded: “In the meantime, we are going to lose a lot of young soldiers who sacrificed their health in the defense of this country. I can’t believe that we have not already solved this problem.”
