Cuts to new scheduling system to save VA $37M this year

The decision to stop work on an online appointment-scheduling system will save the Department of Veterans Affairs $37 million this year, or about two-thirds of the projected $54 million in savings from halting 12 IT programs department-wide.

The scheduling system, called the Replacement Scheduling Application Development program, which already has cost the VA $167 million to date, still could be restarted in the future, but likely with a different approach and a new name. "The requirement [for upgrading the VA scheduling system] has not gone away," Stephen Warren, the VA's principal deputy assistant secretary for information and technology, tells Federal Computer Week. "The need is critical."

It is not the only canceled program VA officials see as important to the future of the Veterans Health Administration. Portions of another project, Pharmacy Re-engineering, already have been restarted, according to a department spokesman.

For more details on Replacement Scheduling Application Development and other VA IT plans:
- check out this Federal Computer Week story

Related Articles:
VA's EMR management problem part of larger health IT failure