DoD has announced it will continue to develop with the Department of Veterans Affairs a standardized electronic health care record that can easily be shared between the two departments and their systems, but that it will contract for related, longer-term IT modernization.
The announcement follows a 30-day internal review of DoD’s efforts to establish a seamless health record and to modernize health record IT systems, as well as recent pressure from lawmakers to reduce the claims backlog.
The undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics will assume direct responsibility for DoD healthcare records interoperability and related modernization programs, according to the Pentagon.
DoD secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the department to continue near-term coordinated efforts with the VA to develop data federation, presentation, and enhanced interoperability, and in the longer-term pursue a full and open competition for a core set of capabilities for healthcare management software modernization.
DoD stated that pursuit of the health care records and systems does not address the problem of the VA’s disability claims backlog – for which VA is requiring employees to work overtime through the end of the fiscal year even while other agencies issue furlough notices – but it said they would help to provide more immediate access to standardized and integrated health care data from DoD, VA and private sources for patients and clinicians.
