VA Narrowing Options for Modernizing its Legacy EHR

11 May VA Narrowing Options for Modernizing its Legacy EHR

Source: HealthDataManagement.com

By: Greg Sladobkin

The Department of Veterans Affairs is weighing all options as the agency decides the future of its legacy electronic health record system, including the possibility of replacing the decades-old Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) with a commercial EHR.

“We need Congress to fund our IT modernization to keep our legacy systems from failing and to increase the interoperability of electronic health records essential to any high-performing integrated health system,” VA Secretary David Shulkin, MD, told lawmakers on Wednesday during a House hearing. “We’re also weighing options for adopting a commercial off-the-shelf alternative to our legacy systems.”

Testifying before House appropriators, Shulkin said the VA’s decision on replacing VistA with a commercial EHR is slated for July. Among the options that the agency is currently considering are either finding a “commercial company that will take over and support of VistA, or we’re going to go to an off-the-shelf product,” he added.

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