Veterans Health Administration (VHA)

See the following -

VA's Hurricane Relief Efforts Extend Beyond Veterans

Johnathon Clinkscales | American Legion | October 5, 2017

The American Legion met with VA leadership on Sept. 29 to learn what humanitarian aid VA is, and has been, providing to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Florida and Texas..."There are 60 civilian hospitals in Puerto Rico, many of which are still inoperative, don't have power or have serious damage. There's only one hospital that is like the beacon in Puerto Rico and that is the VA medical center - seeing people, taking care of everybody we can and feeding everybody we can."..."We did a lot of preparing and started sending stuff down there before the hurricane. Now we're using these resources to take care of non-veterans and civilians until the hospitals - that are either damaged, incapable of operating or we don't know the condition of - come back into the system and then we'll transfer them. It is certainly necessary for a humanitarian effort like this," Loren said...

Read More »

VA, DoD Climb The Stairs To Interoperability Together

Michael O'Connell | Federal News Radio | November 14, 2013

Leaders in the healthcare community are thinking of ways they can use data to improve the quality of health care. The departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense have joined forces to create VistA Evolution, a system that allows the exchange of electronic health records information between the two. Read More »

VA, U.K. health service team up on IT

Joe Conn | Modern Healthcare | March 22, 2013

The healthcare arm of the Veterans Affairs Department and the United Kingdom's National Health Service are teaming up under a three-year agreement to swap leaders, staff and ideas about the use of healthcare information technology by the two huge government-financed systems, according to a new joint report. Read More »

VA’s PHR And Portal Not Reaching High-Priority Vets

Greg Slabodkin | HealthData Management | December 15, 2014

Though millions of U.S. veterans have registered for the My HealtheVet personal health record and patient portal developed by the Veterans Health Administration, opportunities are being missed for those with specific medical conditions that require intensive treatment and self-management...

Read More »

Veterans Affairs Implementing RTLS Across Seven Midwest Hospitals

Claire Swedberg | RFID Journal | August 6, 2012

The facilities, located in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, are installing six different types of real-time location systems, as well as passive RFID tags and other auto-ID technologies, with all data managed by Intelligent InSites software on a single platform. Read More »

Veterans aren’t the only ones waiting for health care

Ezra Klein | Vox | May 23, 2014

But the big question with these stories about the VA is, "compared to what?" This scandal wouldn't exist if the VA didn't have performance metrics on its employees. If it didn't measure or care whether veterans get prompt appointments it could just do what the rest of the health-care system has done and not hold people responsible for these metrics. Read More »

Veterans Health Administration Launches Mobile Healthcare Initiatives

Greg Slabodkin | FierceMobileHealthcare | May 12, 2013

[...] To better address the medical needs of today's veterans, the VHA has launched a number of mobile healthcare initiatives. Neil Evans, M.D., and Kathleen Frisbee, MPH, Ph.D.c, who co-direct the VHA's Connected Health Office, spoke with FierceMobileHealthcare about the agency's mHealth pilot programs. Read More »

Veterans Health Administration Thinks Key to Interoperability May Be in the Cloud

Joseph Conn | Modern Healthcare | January 9, 2017

The giant Veterans Health Administration is poking its head into the cloud to see if therein lies the key to sharing data within and outside of its sprawling healthcare delivery system. The goal of the Digital Health Platform is to pull patient data from the VA, military and commercial electronic health record systems, applications, devices and wearables and send it to a patient's healthcare team in real-time. That would allow patients to more easily obtain health care from physicians and hospitals outside of VA facilities, but some experts say a cloud-based platform also leaves it vulnerable to hackers...

Read More »

VHA Business Architecture Announces Enterprise Architecture Driven Results Award

Press Release | Thomas & Herbert Consulting (T&H), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) | November 4, 2013

Thomas & Herbert Consulting LLC (T&H) announced today that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Business Architecture Service, part of Strategic Investment Management, Office of Informatics and Analytics, was awarded the Leadership in Enterprise Architecture Driven Results - Government Project, Civilian Award [...]. Read More »

VHA Providing EHR Training for Health Professional across the U.S.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) currently operates more than 1,500 sites of care, including 152 hospitals, 965 outpatient clinics, and over 130 VA nursing homes. Last year, over 116,000 health professional trainees received some or all of their clinical training in these VA healthcare facilities. The VA has academic  affiliation agreements with more than 1,800 colleges, universities, and medical schools across the U.S.   All of the physicians and healthcare professionals that pass through the VA receive training in the use of the VistA electronic health record (EHR) system. Read More »

VHA, Phytel Join Forces On Population Health

Bernie Monegain | Government Health IT | May 20, 2013

VHA, a nationwide healthcare network of 1,400 not-for-profit healthcare organizations that work to boost clinical performance while reducing costs, has cut a deal with Phytel to help its members tackle population management. Read More »

VistA and Epic: A Tale of Two Systems

Over the last few weeks, access to VA health care for veterans has been all over the news.  At the same time, the DoD is moving to procure a replacement EHR system.  So it seems there is no time like the present to review a recent RAND case studies report entitled “Redirecting Innovation in U.S. Health Care: Options to Decrease Spending and Increase Value.” The case studies include a chapter comparing America’s two most broadly deployed EHRs: The VA’s VistA and Epic.

Read More »

VistA EHR Community and OSEHRA Experiences Extraordinary Growth in 2014

We have recorded a robust year of growth during 2014 and have laid a solid foundation for market expansion in 2015. OSEHRA corporate membership doubled during 2014. Corporate Members include large, medium and small corporations, nonprofits, academic institutions and international organizations that are leaders in health information technology...our primary open source electronic health record product, VistA, was rated by a MedScape survey as the most preferred EHR by physician users again in 2014. Further, our corporate members collaborate on policy, marketing, education and software initiatives. We expect the business opportunities for corporate members to grow considerably next year as the marketplace for open source health IT continues to expand. Read More »

VistA For The NHS

Ewan Davis | Woodcote Consulting | July 25, 2012

[...] It is widely acknowledged that over recent years the VA has transformed itself from one of the worst healthcare provider to probably the best in the USA with its use of VistA rightly credited as on of the key enablers of this transformation. Read More »

VistA is Going Places, and Also Staying Put

The Veterans Health Administration's hospital software, VistA, is a computing legend. Few pieces of software have become the subject of a popular book (Best Care Anywhere), won repeated awards for their usability, or been credited with a 180-degree turn-around in an organization's quality. But VistA is getting long in the tooth, and many--including now the VA itself--are questioning whether it's time for something new.The speculations aren't just about VistA. They extend to all health care software of that generation, including the industry's leading electroinc health record (EHR) system--Epic--and the venerable Intermountain Healthcare.

Read More »