Cerner to relaunch $16B EHR system project for VA

Kansas City-based healthcare information technology giant, Cerner, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are resuming a large-scale medical records project with a new go-live date set for October 2022.

In early April, the VA hit pause on the $16 billion electronic health record project, said to be in part due to COVID-19. The agency is working to transition from its customized VistA platform to a Cerner EHR system. 

This was not the first delay, however, and mid-February the VA pushed back the go-live date for the new EHR at its first VA hospital. Original plans called for Cerner’s EHR system to be in use on March 28 at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington.

IN May 2018, the VA signed a $10 billion deal with Cerner to move from the VA’s customized VistA platform to an off-the-shelf EHR to align the country’s largest health system with the Department of Defense, which had already started integrating Cerner’s MHS Genesis system.

For the VA, the Cerner EHR will replace the approximately 130 operational instances of VistA currently in use across the department. While the initial EHR contract signed with Cerner was for $10 billion, the VA has pushed the estimated 10-year cost for implementing the system past $16 billion.

The VA said its 10-year implementation schedule would not change nor the overall cost estimates of the EHR modernization program.