By Rachel Z. Arndt | June 20,
2018
The U.S. House of
Representatives will create an oversight panel to keep an eye on the Veterans
Affairs Department's $10 billion electronic health records project.
The subcommittee, under the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, will also watch over "other major technology projects" at the VA, according to a release from committee chair Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.).
The VA has faced scrutiny over the planned overhaul of its EHR system since the project was announced over a year ago. The contract with EHR vendor Cerner was delayed for months, as the company, the VA and other government officials wrestled over interoperability. Unofficial advisers to President Donald Trump may also have had a hand in the delay.
Similar EHR implementations have faced challenges, including the Department of Defense's current rollout of its own Cerner EHR, MHS Genesis.
That system is part of the reason why the VA went with the same vendor, saying that it would allow for interoperability of medical records between the VA and the DoD.
The VA will need to work closely with the DoD for its EHR implementation to succeed, Roe said in the statement.
For now, details on the oversight panel are slim. Members of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs will discuss the new subcommittee in July, following a hearing the last week of June on the VA's EHR overhaul.
"It is important Congress is well-suited to hold VA accountable every step of the way and to ensure EHR modernization is implemented as seamlessly as possible," Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) said in a statement.
The subcommittee, under the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, will also watch over "other major technology projects" at the VA, according to a release from committee chair Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.).
The VA has faced scrutiny over the planned overhaul of its EHR system since the project was announced over a year ago. The contract with EHR vendor Cerner was delayed for months, as the company, the VA and other government officials wrestled over interoperability. Unofficial advisers to President Donald Trump may also have had a hand in the delay.
Similar EHR implementations have faced challenges, including the Department of Defense's current rollout of its own Cerner EHR, MHS Genesis.
That system is part of the reason why the VA went with the same vendor, saying that it would allow for interoperability of medical records between the VA and the DoD.
The VA will need to work closely with the DoD for its EHR implementation to succeed, Roe said in the statement.
For now, details on the oversight panel are slim. Members of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs will discuss the new subcommittee in July, following a hearing the last week of June on the VA's EHR overhaul.
"It is important Congress is well-suited to hold VA accountable every step of the way and to ensure EHR modernization is implemented as seamlessly as possible," Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) said in a statement.
Rachel Arndt covers technology for Modern Healthcare. Her
work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Quartz, Fast Company, and elsewhere.
She has MFAs in nonfiction and poetry from the University of Iowa and a
bachelor’s degree from Brown.
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