Months after the initial go-live, VA employees and congressional stakeholders tell Federal News Network the deployment in Spokane was far less successful than the department initially touted. And though some pieces of the electronic health record are working well, they say the initial rollout was not a viable proof of concept for VA’s $16 billion, 10-year EHR modernization effort — at least not yet.
The EHR era is still in its infancy. An appreciation of its failures is widespread, but reliable, quantitative metrics of vendor performance are lacking. Scientifically sound EHR use metrics are needed to drive measurable improvements in EHR design, implementation, and regulation and to inform improvements in clinical workflows and teamwork.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough told Congress he still believed the department could meet its initial $16 billion, 10-year budget and timeline for implementing Cerner’s Millennium electronic health record suite, despite multiple delays and problems with the modernization effort at its first go-live site.
With the modernization of its core electronic health record (EHR) system tangled up in delays, senior officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on March 19 announced that they were ordering a strategic review of the modernization process.
HHS is offering $250M in grants to improve healthcare literacy and uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine in underserved populations, the agency said Monday. The funding is available to cities, counties and other subdivisions and is expected to fund 30 urban projects and 42 rural projects over the next two years. Applications are open through April 20.
“Recovering hacker” Alissa Knight calls personal health information the most valuable data on the dark web. Knight partnered with mobile security company Approov to hack 30 mobile health apps to highlight the threats they face through application program interfaces (APIs). All of the apps were found to be vulnerable to API attacks, and some allowed access to electronic health records (EHRs).
Healthcare interoperability is evolving, but it is not keeping pace with industry needs. New federal and state policies, as well as advancements in technology, that focus on data management will be needed to push interoperability forward.
Healthcare providers can use connected health channels to have discreet, personal conversations with patients about their weight, they can also use these platforms and tools to offer education and resources, on-demand treatment, and support for everything from lifestyle choices to addiction triggers, even remote patient monitoring to keep patients on a care plan.
In an October 2020 briefing to Congress, the U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) postpone deployment of its new EHR system in new locations until all critical issues that might affect the success of the deployment are resolved.
Each year, the US healthcare industry spends $39 billion on 9 administrative transactions, according to a new report from CAQH. The 2020 CAQH Index also uncovered that by automating these transactions, the industry could save $16.3 billion annually–a 42% cost reduction.
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