Keeping Track of Washington State & Many Others Embracing the VistA 'Open Source' EHR System

The installation and use of 'open source' electronic health record (EHR) systems have continued to spread across Washington and many other states.  See the map of healthcare facilities running some variant of the open source VistA electronic health record (EHR) system in Washington and other neighboring states in the Northwest. [Also, learn more about the upcoming Open Health News (OHN) detailed report on VistA installations and users. across the U.S. and around the world. Consider sponsoring OHN and the upcoming report.]


As an example of our findings, in the state of Washington, all of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare facilities are continuing to use the well known, award winning VistA System. VA healthcare facilities (i.e. hospitals, outpatient clinics, nursing homes) using VistA include the:

• American Lake VA Hospital
• Bremerton VA Clinic
• Colville VA Clinic
• Mount Vernon VA Clinic
• Port Angeles VA Clinic
• Portland VA Medical Center
• Richland VA Clinic
• South Sound VA Clinic
• Spokane VA Medical Center
• Seattle VA Medical Center
• Bellevue VA Clinic
• Federal Way VA Clinic
• North Seattle VA Clinic
• Wenatchee VA Clinic
• Yakima VA Clinic
• Walla Walla VA Medical Center

The following Indian Health Service (IHS) or Native American Tribal healthcare facilities in Washington are currently using a variant of the VistA system known as RPMS:

• Sophie Trettevick Tribal Health Clinic
• Omak Tribal Clinic
• Roger Saux Tribal Health Clinic
• Colville IHS Clinic
• Lake Roosevelt Community Health Centers
• Snoqualmie Falls Tribal Clinic
• Skokomish Tribal Health Clinic
• Shoalwater Bay Tribal Health Clinic
• Muckleshoot Tribal Health & Wellness Clinic
• Tulalip Tribal Health Clinic
• Lower Elwha Tribal Health Clinic
• Yakama IHS Clinic
• Spokane Native Health Urban Clinic    
• Lummi Nation Tribal Health Clinic
• Chehalis Tribal Wellness Center
• Cowlitz Tribal Health Clinic
• Wynecoop Memorial IHS Clinic
• White Swan IHS Clinic

The following are other Federal, State, and/or local community healthcare facilities in Washington currently using other derivatives of the VistA system, e.g. CHCS, OpenVistA, vxVistA, WorldVistA.

• U.S. Naval Hospital Oak Harbor
• Madigan Army Medical Center
• Columbia Basin Hospital 
• U.S. Naval Hospital Bremerton
• Western State Hospital
• Eastern State Hospital

Tracking All VistA Installations & Users

There are currently more than 1600 hospitals and clinics across the U.S. and around the world using the VistA system, or one of its derivatives, e.g. RPMS, CHCS, OpenVistA, vxVistA, WorldVistA. It is one of the most widely used EHR systems in the U.S.  Check out the map of all healthcare facilities. The following pie chart gives you a better view of the types of facilities currently using the system:

Open Health News (OHN) plans on shortly releasing the first annual report on VistA installations and users across the U.S. and around the world entitled "VistA: The EHR of Record" - along with the VistA Installations GIS Map & Database v.1.0.

Peter Groen, one of the co-founders and a Senior Editor at OHN, will be presenting more on the VistA Installations map, database, and report at the upcoming OSEHRA, VistA Expo, and other 'Open Health' conferences.

The plan is to work with the VistA community to continually enhance the GIS Map & Database and the annual report on VistA installations and users around the world.

If you would like to be a sponsor of this year's report, please contact Roger Maduro, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of Open Health News (OHN) immediately, at [email protected]  He can provide you with more detail and a copy of the sponsorship rate sheets.