The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded the second option period for its electronic health records modernization contract with Oracle Health. This is an eleven-month extension, “with an emphasis on improved fiscal and performance accountability,” the VA said.
WHY IT MATTERS
The agency says it is focusing heavily on making the new extension measurable, with the expectation that Oracle will achieve “two key objectives” for the problem-plagued EHR program:
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Supporting value-added services, such as system improvements and optimizations.
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Achieving better predictability in hosting, implementation and maintenance, while keeping fiscal responsibility in mind.
“These goals align with and facilitate VA’s reset efforts to resume site deployments in fiscal year 2025,” officials said. “VA will continue to evaluate and align future option periods on the best path forward for modernizing the federal EHR.”
The new option period represents a continuation of VA’s work to improve the federal EHR for veterinarians and the six VA healthcare facilities are already living on the new system, the agency noted. The contract will also allow for new pre-deployment and deployment efforts at new sites in FY25, “once VA determines reset objectives have been achieved.”
In 2023, the VA renegotiated its Oracle Health contract from one five-year term to five one-year terms, allowing for a more regular annual assessment of the program’s progress. That has “substantially increased accountability in a number of key areas,” the agency says, “including minimizing outages and incidents, resolving physician requests, improving interoperability with other health care systems, and increasing interoperability with other applications.”
In a brief press release of its own, Oracle Health said the new contract extension is a “testament to the progress Oracle and VA have made” in EHR modernization, which has seen no shortage of challenges and setbacks in recent years.
“Our most recent implementation at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, Illinois exceeded expectations and demonstrated what is possible as we move forward with other VA facilities,” said Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager from Oracle Health and Life Sciences, in a statement.
Oracle Health said it is focused on helping VA standardize workflows, training and IT management nationwide, and enable more streamlined coordination and interoperability with the DOD, Coast Guard and other federal agencies. The company is also prioritizing flexibility to help VA sites adopt new tools that will improve the usability and security of the EHR system.
THE BIG TREND
The VA first announced its deal with Cerner to replace the outdated VistA system seven years ago this month — prompting then-President Donald Trump to promise that the new EHR would solve the agency’s nationwide data-sharing problems “once and for all.” dissolve.
Since then, the rollout of the system, starting with facilities in Washington state, has been challenging to say the least – even if some useful lessons have been learned along the way.
As early as early 2021, the agency was already conducting a strategic review of the modernization program following rollout issues, missed deadlines and other delays.
Since then, there have been several reports from the VA OIG that have shown instances where the system had contributed to patient harm.
After a pause to reset and recalibrate the rollout in 2023, it was announced in April that the rollout would resume in 2025.
Yet recent OIG reports continue to reveal significant and dangerous configuration issues with the EHR.
And just this month, Bloomberg reported to an internal survey at the VA that found widespread physician dissatisfaction with the system.
“There is a trend toward improvement, but most users still report a negative experience,” VA researchers wrote in the unpublished report.
These and many other issues have drawn the attention of members of Congress – many of whom continue to call for much stricter oversight of the VA’s $16 billion contract with Oracle Health.
ON THE RECORD
“This announcement is a testament to VA’s commitment to keeping the interests of veterans, VA providers and taxpayers at the forefront while maximizing resources in a fiscally constrained environment,” VA Assistant Secretary Tanya Bradsher said in a statement from June 13 in which the Oracle renewal was announced. .
“By executing the second option period of the contract, VA and Oracle Health can continue to meet the goals of the reset and future deployments,” she said. “VA remains committed to holding ourselves and our suppliers accountable to resolve challenges with federal EHR deployment and move forward productively.”
“VA’s intent to resume deployments in the next fiscal year is an important milestone that reflects the hard work our collective teams have done today to improve the system, as well as the confidence in our shared ability to continue to improve the EHR over of time to continuously evolve to meet the needs of both practitioners and patients,” Verma added.
Mike Miliard is editor-in-chief of Healthcare IT News
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.