Hospital builds open-source eRx module from VistA

Oroville (Calif.) Hospital plans to release as open source an electronic prescribing software module it developed to use with its open-source version of VistA, the Veterans Affairs Department's electronic health record system. The module, eRx Vista, will let Oroville clinicians send e-prescriptions to community-based retail pharmacies and could be of significant benefit to the growing VistA open-source community.

"Now that eRx VistA has been open-sourced, any of the more than 50 private and state hospitals that have implemented VistA in the U.S. can incorporate the module into their EHRs," 113-bed Oroville, about 70 miles north of Sacramento, announced in a news release. The question remains whether the VA will one day make use of the gift...