The Department of Veterans Affairs completed a strategic review of its electronic health record modernization program and Jon Rychalski, VA’s chief financial officer, told lawmakers Thursday that the department will also carry out an enterprisewide assessment of information technology and physical infrastructure needs for the EHR initiative, Federal News Network reported.
VA is establishing its IT investment board and Rychalski said the board is already helping the department better manage its tech initiatives and make decisions about its EHR modernization effort.
“We’re working more of these issues through the IT investment board, because they obviously have cross-program effects into IT and into VA infrastructure,” Rychalski told members of the House Veterans Affairs Technology Modernization Subcommittee Thursday.
“We have a pretty good sense across the organization from a finance, IT and acquisition standpoint what’s going on. We consider them in that venue, and we have a broader audience there as well. If there are residual impacts on other parts of the organization, we all have a better sight picture into [what’s] going on,” he added.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough, who announced a 12-week strategic review of VA’s EHR modernization effort to address issues in March, spoke to reporters Wednesday following the completion of the EHR review.
“We’re very close to finalizing the next steps, including changes to the deployment effort to ensure that we come in on time, on budget and, most importantly, provide the best care for our vets and the best experience for our providers,” McDonough said.
