Here we go again. The Department of Defense’s Military Health System (MHS), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Oracle have all cited the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago as a successful joint implementation. It is the only joint, fully integrated MHS/VA facility, was the only exception to the full pause on Oracle Cerner implementations in going live on 9 March, and so stands alone in complexity and importance. Oracle EVP Ken Glueck, in excoriating Business Insider, pointed to Lovell as a successful implementation to prove It Could Be Done! [TTA 31 May].
Except…except. House Representative Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization, a skeptic from Day One, investigated with other committee members. Several unnerving findings:
- “The pharmacy is completely reliant on outside help to operate”.
- “The Oracle Cerner pharmacy software functions so poorly that the permanent pharmacy staff can only process about 40% of the prescriptions.”. That means 60% of prescriptions go unfilled.
- “The Committee staff visited James A. Lovell twice, and the employees are reporting the same frustration, hypervigilance, and burnout that the managers of the other four facilities testified about last September.”
- 100 new staff have been hired at Lovell, with another 100 on the way.
- About 800 experienced staff from other facilities and VA’s central office pitched in after the 9 March go-live.
Rosendale, in his opening remarks, expressed great concern that VA Secretary McDonough could realistically resume Oracle Cerner EHRM go-live at any scale, given the Lovell experience. He also noted that “the Veterans Health Administration is facing a $12 billion budget deficit, the financial impacts of the EHR on the organization’s staffing have never been budgeted or seriously reckoned with.”
His conclusion was strong language: “Veterans and taxpayers deserve to know how large the Oracle Cerner bill truly is. Congress as well as the public need all of the information in order to make an informed decision about whether this is worth it, and whether the inevitable sacrifices are truly justified. Anything less is dereliction of duty.” Hat tip to HIStalk 7/24/24
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