The Government Accountability Office has found problems with the quality of electronic health data migrated to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ new records system that could pose risks to patient safety and jeopardize the accuracy, appropriateness and accessibility of information.
GAO said in a report published Tuesday VA transferred health data from its legacy systems to Cerner’s new electronic health records system as part of its EHR modernization program but risks to patient safety were identified during the initial deployment of the new system due to incomplete data migration.
The challenges were, in part, due to a failure to establish performance measures and goals for migrated data quality.
“Until VA uses such measures and goals to better ensure the quality of migrated data, the department could deploy a new EHR system that does not meet clinicians’ needs and poses risks to the continuity of patient care,” the report reads.
Moreover, VA started maintaining reporting capabilities and delivering new ones from the new system without identifying and engaging all key stakeholders.
The congressional watchdog has recommended that VA set performance measures and goals to ensure data quality and use a stakeholder register to improve the identification and engagement of all relevant stakeholders.
