The process of procuring a new commercial EHR system is slated to cost the Pentagon $1.5 billion from 2017 through 2019, according to disclosed budget documents, NextGov reports.
Plans were made in January to field the new EHR in phases, beginning with a test site at Fort Lewis, Wash., in 2016 and full deployment to 57 hospitals, 364 medical clinics, 282 dental clinics, 225 vet clinics and 321 ships by 2019 (Brewin, NewxtGov, 3/14).
Last month, DHA kicked off procurement for a sustainment contract to to operate and maintain its current EHR systems, including the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application, or AHLTA, and the Composite Health Care System, or CHCS. DHA has set a budget of $723 million — up $70 million from 2014. The contract could be awarded by the end of this month keep the legacy legacy EHRs serving 9.7 million patients and 230,000 clinical personnel — in operation through 2018.
VA Enters Bid for Pentagon’s EHR Contract
On Thursday of last week, the Veterans Affairs Department plans to enter its next generation EHR system dubbed VistA Evolution, into the competition for the Defense Department’s EHR job.The open-sourced MUMPS (Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System) based solution will be equal to commercial software e.g. Cerner, Epic, Allscripts, according to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. If the DoD develops a software module that meets VA needs, the VA “will go after that,” Shinseki said.
Responding to a series of questions, Shinseki told Rep. David Roe, R-Tenn he wanted to see real progress on interopability between the VA and Defense EHRs and “did not want to be having this conversation in another ten years.”
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