“Last Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of a joint statement signed by Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie and then-Defense Secretary James Mattis to establish a governance process for the joint implementation of Cerner electronic health record software.
The statement promised “an organizational structure that supports the delivery of a single, seamlessly integrated EHR that maximizes commercial health record interoperability” and “a detailed implementation timeline.”
That organization has a proposed name and structure, but it hasn’t really taken shape. Dubbed the FEHRM, for Federal Electronic Health Record Management, the organization has a director and deputy director but has yet to finalize a charter or get staffed up.
At a hearing last week, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), the ranking member of House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization, said the moment may have passed for the FEHRM to provide leadership for the integration of the systems at VA and DOD.
“I think we must be realistic about what is achievable at this point. We need to turn the page on the idea of the FEHRM standing up the new EHRs. The critical decision-making window is closing. The FEHRM can still be helpful as a governance body to sustain the EHRs, but we have to calibrate expectations accordingly,” Banks said.
The DOD is already rolling out the commercial software in a…” Read the full article here.
Source: Can a joint DOD-VA oversight body catch up with health record deployment? – By Adam Mazmanian, September 20, 2019. FCW.
