On Thursday evening, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced an agreement with Cerner for the VA to use off-the-shelf Cerner solutions, replacing the legacy VistA EHR. The migration to Cerner will provide veterans, transitioning service members and their care providers access to their medical history through a single electronic health record (EHR) system. The deal is expected to cost $10 billion dollars over 10 years years.
Using technology that has been deployed successfully at Department of Defense (DoD) medical facilities and thousands of provider sites globally, Cerner plans to provide seamless care across the VA’s high-performing integrated network, including VA facilities, community providers and DoD facilities. The system is designed to provide veterans with consistently high-quality health care outcomes, no matter the location or provider.
“We’re honored to have the opportunity to improve the health care experience for our nation’s veterans. The VA has a long history of pioneering health care technology innovation, and we look forward to helping deliver high-quality outcomes across the continuum of care,” said CernerPresident Zane Burke. “My thanks to the administration for selecting Cerner to collaborate in creating seamless care as service members transition from active duty to VA medical centers and community providers. We expect this program to be a positive catalyst for interoperability across the public and private health care sectors, and we look forward to moving quickly with organizations across the industry to deliver on the promise of this mission.”
