The Government Accountability Office urges the Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs to continue their work with the Interagency Program Office to establish interoperability between their electronic health record systems.GAO said in a report published Thursday DoD and VA need to set outcome-oriented metrics and goals to determine their progress in efforts toward interoperability and reflect those metrics and goals in the IPO guidance.
The report noted that the departments have taken action to support interoperability through standardization of data and modernization of EHR systems but will continue their push to verify compliance of healthcare data with national standards by the end of the year.
According to GAO, DoD and VA should establish a time frame in order to meet the deadlines indicated in the National Defense Authorization Act for the modernization and compliance efforts.
