(The Center Square) – A bill by eastern Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane, would make the Department of Veterans Affairs’ medical arm stop upgrading its health records system and make some sought-after improvements.
The Department of Veterans Affairs Electronic Health Record Modernization Improvement Act was introduced to Congress by McMorris Rodgers and co-sponsored by House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Illinois, to rein in a five-year-long process that is putting the health and safety of America’s Veterans at risk.
“The goal of modernizing the VA’s health record was simple: Make sure veterans receive the best care possible at VA facilities. Five years later, it’s abundantly clear that it’s come up short,” said McMorris Rogers in a statement.
That abundance of clarity is echoed by the VA’s office of the Inspector General. A report, released by that office last April found that the Electronic Health Record Modernization Program did not “fully meet standards for a high-quality, reliable schedule.”
Another report, released by the same office less than three months later in July, found that from “October 2020 through June 2021, the new EHR failed to deliver more than 11,000 orders for requested clinical services.”
This second report went so far as to say that aspects of the new program were directly responsible for causing “multiple events of patient harm.”
Citing those reports and others, a former senior advisor to the secretary of Veterans Affairs and retired Air Force Capt. Darin Selnick told The Center Square via phone, “These are not new problems or challenges. So the question is, why didn’t someone do something about it?”
As chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, bill co-sponsor Bost has poked around the system to witness EHR deployment. He is not impressed.
“I have traveled across the country and seen and heard firsthand the impact the Oracle Cerner product has had on VA providers and veterans. It has crippled the delivery of care, put veteran patient safety at risk, and stressed an already overwhelmed healthcare system,” said Bost in a statement.
He added, “While I commend the Secretary for pausing deployment of the new EHR at future sites, I am not confident that will be enough.”
Even the chairman of the VA Subcommittee on Technology Modernization, Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Montana, came out in support of McMorris Rodgers’ bill and basic approach, calling the software “deeply flawed” and responsible for “posing patient safety risks.”
“We cannot continue to further implement this inadequate system at the expense of billions of dollars in government funding,” said Rosendale in a statement.
Possibly complicating matters is that the software was developed by Cerner, which was then acquired by software giant Oracle in a $28.4 billion deal.
When asked about the possibility of government overspending on the program, Selnic admitted, “It’s happened here, but as the result of incompetence, not grift.”
Speaking about a path forward, Selnick, who also serves as a Senior Advisor to Concerned Veterans for America, said that “a pause would make sense,” though “shutting it down and starting totally over would not.”
His recommendations echo what McMorris Rodgers’ bill would do if enacted.
“From my perspective, the problem is, the VA needs to learn from the [Department of Defense], come up with a plan, and fix how they’re executing this,” he said.
