U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

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DoD Opens Bidding For Massive EHR And IT Modernization

Erin McCann | Government Health IT | August 27, 2014

...The broad DoD Healthcare Management Systems Modernization undertaking, aka DHMSM — dubbed “Dim-Sum” by industry insiders — puts as much as $11 billion at stake, so the biggest vendors and consultants have been banding together for several months now to answer DoD’s request for proposal...

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DoD Takes Next Step In Modernizing Electronic Health Records

Jim Garamone | The Dolphin | August 28, 2014

The Defense Department has issued a request for proposals to modernize its electronic health records and allow DoD to share health data with the private sector and the Department of Veterans Affairs.  It is a multi-billion dollar request to replace many of the current DoD legacy health care systems...

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DoD-VA Interoperability Plans Lack Key Information

Susan D. Hall | Fierce Health IT | July 9, 2014

Reports sent to Congress on plans made by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense for an interoperable electronic health record system fully satisfied only one of six statutory conditions placed on the project, according to new findings published by the Government Accountability Office...

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EHR Failure Partly To Blame For VA Troubles

Kenneth Corbin | CIO | July 23, 2014

In a wide-ranging critique of federal IT, former defense secretary Robert Gates says the inability to set up an electronic health record system linking the Pentagon and the VA is one of his 'chief regrets.’...

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EHRs Cause Physicians To Lose 48 Minutes Per Day, Survey Says

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | September 9, 2014

As a physician, free time is a scarce enough commodity without having to factor in convoluted EHR workflows and frozen computers, but a large number of providers surveyed by the American College of Physicians (ACP) are still reporting significant productivity losses due to their EHR technology...

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Electronic Health Record Patient Safety Issues Persist Long After 'Go Live' Date

Press Release | BMJ | June 20, 2014

Patient safety issues related to electronic health records (EHRs) persist long after the 'go live' date, concludes research published online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association...

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Epic Systems, Leading Defense EHR Bidder, Slammed For Lack Of Interoperability

Bob Brewin | Nextgov.com | October 3, 2014

Epic Systems, considered the front-runner for the Defense Department’s $11 billion electronic health record contract, has come under sustained criticism for lack of interoperability with other EHRs, including most recently a front-page story in The New York Times last Sunday...

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Federal Government Taps Ancient Healing Methods To Treat Native American Soldiers

Jennifer Miller | The Christian Science Monitor | September 13, 2007

The veterans administration teams up with medicine men to use sweat lodges and talking circles to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder...

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Federal Open Source Is Messy - And That's OK

David F. Carr | Information Week | August 8, 2014

Open source projects like the National Library of Medicine's Pillbox show potential of open innovation -- including competition with projects started elsewhere...

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Federal Prisons Seek Advanced EHR, Clinical Decision Support

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | June 3, 2014

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is looking to replace its basic EHR with a more robust commercial offering, according to a request for information (RFI) posted on FedBzOpps.gov this week.  The BOP is specifically looking for clinical decision support capabilities to serve its 219,000 federal inmates and more than 400 physicians at its standard prisons and advanced care facilities...

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Fewer Hospitalizations For Diabetic Veterans Using VA’s Home-Based Care

Kathryn Doyle | Reuters | September 16, 2014

For older U.S. military veterans with multiple chronic conditions, including diabetes, taking advantage of home-based primary care from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was linked to fewer hospitalizations, in a recent study...

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Fixing The Veteran's Healthcare Mess

Carolyn McClanahan | Forbes.com | June 4, 2014

What went wrong with our Veteran’s health care system? It comes down to two main culprits – first, the system was asked to do too much, and second, incentives put in place to make the system perform better backfired. In this post, I address the stresses in the Veterans Health Administration, how the incentives backfired, and ways to help get the VA health care system back on track...

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For V.A. Hospitals (And Patients), A Major Health Victory

Tina Rosenberg | The New York Times | January 30, 2015

Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the United States is making modest progress in bringing down rates of hospital-acquired infections...

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Fresh Start At The VA

Alvin Powell | Harvard Gazette | November 25, 2014

U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) Robert McDonald says the troubled agency is making slow progress in getting its house in order, citing more — and more timely — appointments and authorizations to see private doctors for veterans who live far from VA hospitals...

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Gibson: VA Pursuing Schedule Fix On Multiple Tracks

Adam Mazmanian | FCW | July 16, 2014

There are 11 known defects in the scheduling system,  part of the VistA health record system, and those "are being patched as we speak," Gibson told members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on July 16. In addition, the VA is developing four new interfaces to make it easier for schedulers to access the system, and to give veterans the ability to access their own appointments data through the VA...

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