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

It's bad enough that the VA has spent millions on its HealtheVet EHR project and hasn't finished it out properly. According to the agency's Inspector General, that failure is just one part of a larger pattern suggesting that the agency just doesn't know how to manage systems integration projects.

For example, final testing of an application designed to let vets request and review medical appointments in their EMR accounts was supposed to be completed this year, for rollout in January 2010. However, the agency terminated the project because the code it had developed simply didn't work. The rollout tanked because of department-level IT management failures, notably constant changes in direction, requirements and the timing of the project, the IG concluded.

If the functionality for one sector of its EMR was the only big collapse the IG could find, maybe things wouldn't be quite so bad. But there's been many other failed IT projects at the VA, including the agency's Patient Financial Services System.

While the reasons behind these project failures are complex, one major issue that seems to cut across all of them is a failure to centrally manage them. Right now, the VA isn't doing a good job keeping track of its varied IT projects. The IG is recommending that the VA develop effective oversight systems to manage complicated IT projects.

To learn more about the VA's IT problems:
- read this Government Health IT piece

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