VA, DoD aren’t collaborating on EHR: GAO

February 28, 2014 | by

Your ‘Dog Bites Man’ item for the weekend (no, it’s not in reverse!) is that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has determined that Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) have not yet proved that their current two-system path, having rejected a single EHR, actually will be workable. In February 2013, both agencies abandoned a joint system after $1 billion in spend, and $4 billion in fixes/upgrades to their separate VistA and AHLTA systems. [TTA 15 Dec] By the two agencies going their separate ways, the GAO is mystified on what is going on with interoperability. The answer: not much. And as mentioned in our 15 December article, there was a 31 January deadline for an interoperability plan (or single system) to be implemented by 2016, mandated by the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Obviously, this deadline has come and gone. FierceEMR article, GAO recommendation (full text PDF)

One way to overcome the interoperability problem and too much in the EHR? Get rid of those pesky backlogged patient records! The Daily Caller uncovered a VA whistleblower’s complaint to the VA’s Inspector General and their office of special counsel, plus Congress, that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally canceled backlogged patient exam requests going back more than one year–and that the delay on exams went back 6-9 months. The deletions started in 2009. There is a wrongful dismissal (of said whistleblower) suit and other joy. Article, audio (02:21) Updates 3-4 March:  according to Under Secretary for Health Robert Petzel, the Daily Caller report was ‘scurrilous’. He stated that about 300 records were closed but not deleted after administrative review, generally for old imaging requests, and there was no effort to delete records to boost performance.  According to FierceHealthIT, the backlog is about 400,000. Also Military Times. According to EHR Intelligence, both DoD and the VA agree with the GAO recommendations; GAO will update its findings once the agencies have taken action. Also iHealthBeat.

EHR interoperability redux for VA, Department of Defense (US)

December 15, 2013 | by

Back in late February, the US Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs announced that they would not achieve their goal of a single EHR by 2017, and would stick with their creaky AHLTA and VistA systems for the foreseeable future [TTA 3 April]–along with the general lack of interoperability–eyes rolled at the $1 billion down the drain, but seemingly not much else budged. (And this does not include the $4 billion spent on failed updates and fixes in both systems–TTA’s ‘Pondering the Squandering’, 27 July) To this Editor’s utter shock, the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), agreed to by the House and Senate this week, mandates a plan for either interoperability or a single system by 31 January–about 6 weeks from now–and to adopt it by 2016. Moreover, both systems must be interoperable with private providers based on national standards by 1 October 2014. A close reading of the NextGov article indicates that the bill adds levels of complexity and perhaps unworkability. Getthereitis, anyone?–or does this sound like Healthcare.gov, redux? FierceMobileHealthcare

And it takes a grad student to find a major info security flaw in VistA.  (more…)

Pondering the squandering of taxpayer money on IT projects (US)

July 27, 2013 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gimlet-eye.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]The Gimlet Eye has been in Observation Mode this week. But this handful of Dust-In-Eye necessitates a Benny Goodman-style Ray on another US governmental ‘fail’. When it comes to IT, the government admits…

Agencies Have Spent Billions on Failed and Poorly Performing Investments

Exhibit #1: FierceHealthIT summarizes five big ones out of a 51-page Government Accountability Office (GAO) report focusing on the inefficiency of agency IT initiatives–just in healthcare.

  1. Veterans Affairs (VA) VistA EHR system transitioning to a new architecture: terminated October 2010 at a cost of $1.9 billion
  2. VA-Department of Defense (DOD) iEHR integration: as previously written about, it collapsed under its own weight for another $1 billion [TTA 8 March]

  3. DoD-VA’s Federal Health Care Center (FHCC). Opened in 2010 as a joint facility under a single authority line, but somehow none of the IT capabilities were up and running when the doors opened. ‘Jake, it’s ChiTown.’ Only $122 million.

  4. DoD’s own EHR, AHLTA (no VistA–that’s VA’s) still doesn’t work right; speed, usability and availability all problematic. A mere $2 billion over 13 years.
  5. VA’s outpatient system is 25 years old. Modernization failed after $127 million over 9 years before the plug was pulled in September 2009

You’ll need Iron Eyes to slog through the detail, but it is a remarkable and damning document. PDF (link)

but…there’s more. Excruciating, hair-hurting, and would be amusing if not so painfully, and expensively, inept. Malware Removal Gone Wild at Commerce… (more…)

VA distributing iPads to Family Caregivers (US)

July 20, 2013 | by

Back in May 2012 we noted a Veterans Affairs (VA) program for 2013 that would distribute 1,000 iPads to primary caregivers of seriously wounded veterans to facilitate care delivery and data transfer. Then called ‘Clinic-In-Hand’, it is now officially debuting as the Family Caregiver Pilot for caregivers of seriously injured post-9/11 veterans already enrolled in VA’s Family Caregiver Program. The intent is now more clearly focused on reducing caregiver stress, via  pre-loaded apps to share health information, coach patients through chronic pain and PTSD and serve up tools such as reminders and a health journal. A second, the Veteran Appointment Request Web App Pilot, facilitates appointment setting via mobile or desktop PCs for a separate test group of 600 veterans and was launched at the Washington, D.C. VA Medical Center and VA Palo Alto (California) Health Care System. According to EHR Intelligence, if successful it will be rolled out to all patients at these two VA centers with a system rollout in the future–complicated by the fact that every VA center has a different scheduling system. Meanwhile, VA’s VistA and the DOD’s AHLTA still don’t talk to each other. VA integrates mHealth into daily care, gives iPads to vets (EHR Intelligence); VA Mobile Health release (for additional details go to the left hand drop-down menu). Hat tip to Contributing Editor Charles Lowe.

VA networks breached from overseas; 20 million records affected (US)

June 19, 2013 | by

Department of Veterans Affairs IT systems have been breached since 2010 by eight ‘nation-state-sponsored organizations’, affecting records of 20 million veterans, according to recent testimony in hearings held earlier this month by the House Veterans Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. While the normal ‘hack’ is due to theft or an inside job for financial gain, these likely have a far more sinister nature. According to former VA Chief Information Security Officer Jerry Davis (now at NASA), the attacks continue from these countries, and according to Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Coffman, may include China and Russia. Testimony and evidence also revealed that those responsible for informing Secretary Shinseki may have understated the problem. The VA has certainly been taking its lumps with a Magic 8 Ball of late, with a derailed joint EHR project with the Department of Defense and wrangling on who’s leading integration [TTA 3 April; iHealthBeat]. VA Systems Hacked From Abroad, Was VA Secretary Misled About Breaches? (HealthcareInfoSecurity)

An ‘Office of mHealth’ a solution for FDA gridlock? (US)

May 13, 2013 | by

The ‘FDA Office of mHealth‘ bill (H.R. 6626) as sponsored by Mike Honda, Silicon Valley’s House Representative (California 17th District), which expired with last year’s Congress [TTA 18 Dec] will be revived with revisions, according to MedCityNews. (Rep. Honda will be keynoting on the second day of MedCityNews’ ENGAGE conference in Washington D.C. in June.) Formerly dubbed HIMTA (Healthcare Innovation and Marketplace Technologies Act) will now include how that office will work with the alphabet soup of other agencies: FCC, HHS, ONC, FTC. It struck this Editor in December–and later [TTA 28 Mar]–that this bill does not go far enough. In its good intentions to speed mHealth approvals by creating a framework plus monetary incentives, it is not powerful or independent enough to slice through or bypass various turfs.  What would be revolutionary is simplification. Why not an independent unit that draws from FDA, FCC and HHS, but has priority and license to cut through red tape? But that would require major giving up of ground–and with this Federal Government, that ain’t gonna happen. Add to it that the most innovative work–and usage– is being done at DOD (DARPA, T2) and the VA, and the alphabet soup becomes goulash.  Wall Street Journal’s Venture Capital Dispatch

DOD, VA stuck behind the Magic 8 Ball: report (US)

April 3, 2013 | by

Institute of Medicine, ‘Daily Show’ rap DOD, VA for unlinked EHRs

When the US Department of Defense (DOD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) announced back on 27 February that they would not achieve their major goal since 2009 of a single EHR system by 2017, with initial test next year, for this Editor it was just another billion-dollar ‘fail’ day out of DC. FDA dithers since July 2011 on final guidance on mHealth approval–yawn. Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) cutting back rural telemedicine consults–business as usual. Individual health insurance premiums going up 30 percent next year? We knew that was coming! So no surprise here when the Institute for Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences issued a report highly critical of both agencies regarding the needs of 2.2 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, with one key criticism the lack of EHR interoperability. According to iHealthBeat:

The IOM report found that:
• 49% of returning veterans have experienced post-traumatic stress;
• 48% have dealt with the “strains on family life;”
• 44% have experienced readjustment difficulties; and
• 32% have felt “an occasional loss of interest in daily activities.”
According to IOM, the federal government’s response to troops returning to the U.S. “has been slow and has not matched the magnitude of this population’s requirements as many cope with a complex set of health, economic and other challenges.”

Neil Versel in his Meaningful HIT News article published yesterday highlighted the EHR single-system fail through, rather incredibly, a Jon Stewart Daily Show video segment called ‘Red, White and Screwed’. (Today, in American life, you know an issue has gone mainstream when it makes a ‘news/comedy’ show such as this or the Colbert Report.) This Editor is no fan for multiple reasons, but to his credit Mr. Stewart has been a strong advocate on behalf of veterans and showcases the failure of veterans’ support regularly on a segment called ‘The Red Tape Diaries’ without sparing a certain Administration from criticism.  Aside from over 900,000 veterans waiting an average of 273 days for their disability claims to be processed, the icing on the cake is how the EHR ‘fail’ was announced. At 3:20 in the video, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) official drily depicts both DOD and VA as perpetrators of project mismanagement and poor oversight. And this is despite a 40 percent increase in budget from the Republican-controlled House, which confounded Mr. Stewart. The criticism goes on from there. Magic 8 Ball says ‘messed up, try again.’  DoD-VA integration failure is no laughing matter, even to Stewart  Hat tip to reader Ellen Fink-Samnick, MSW of ‘Ellen’s Ethical Lens’ for featuring this article on her LinkedIn group. 

Related, ironic note: the DOD’s and VA’s EHRs are respectively called AHLTA and VistA, a nostalgic touch for those of us who used the first real search engine, AltaVista, circa 1996.