Tag Archives: Health IT

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.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has received $80 million in funds through the American Rescue Plan for a program that seeks to train over 4,000 individuals in public health informatics and technology fields over a period of four years. Applications for the PHIT Workforce Program are due Aug. 11th. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ office of inspector general (OIG) has recommended that the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) establish and implement standard operating procedures to improve scanning and indexing of non-VA medical records into the electronic health records system. The recommendations were made after the inspector general found that community care personnel did not always accurately encode non-VA records into the EHR system. 

Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) said VA will pause the deployment of its new electronic health record (EHR) system to a second site in Columbus, Ohio until it has concluded and shared the results of a strategic assessment of the EHR program with Congress. In March 2021, McDonough announced a 12-week strategic review of VA’s EHR modernization effort. 

Brian Goodger, acting director of the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC), said NITAAC plans to issue a request for proposals for the potential $40 billion Chief Information Officer – Solutions and Partners IV contract. He said NITAAC will adopt a three-phased approach to the evaluation of bids for the governmentwide acquisition contract to immediately address any potential complaints. 

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has made progress implementing its electronic health record (EHR) system by performing end-user training, creating system interfaces and capabilities and making system configuration decisions, among other efforts. On Oct. 24, VA fielded its EHR platform in Spokane, Washington, with zero critical severity test findings. 

A report from the Department of Defense’s (DoD) office of the Director Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) recommends that the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness provide the Defense Health Agency (DHA) with sufficient resources to support continued training, content development and other assistance during the deployment and sustainment of the MHS Genesis electronic health records system.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology has introduced online resources to help health IT professionals comply with new electronic health information system standards. The website also covers topics such as compliance date extensions, health IT certification and test procedures. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) implemented Cerner’s electronic health record system at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, in October 2020 and VA officials said the initial go-live went smoothly. VA employees in Spokane used Cerner’s Millennium EHR platform to place more than 23,000 orders for admissions, medications and clinical tests during the first five days of deployment. 

Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) has appointed Sarjoo Shah as program management director for the state and local health IT market. Shah brings more than 25 years of experience in government healthcare. He most recently served as chief information officer (CIO) for the Oklahoma Department of Health and Human Services.