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VA begins deployment of Cerner EHR system

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has formally launched a new electronic health record system through Kansas City-based Cerner Corp. at a VA location. Plans call for all VA facilities to have the system in place by 2028 in a project worth $16 billion.

The beginning of a nationwide electronic health record (EHR) system launch for has begun this week for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

A Veterans Affairs (VA) center in Washington state is the first to begin the transition from its old system to a new EHR system deployed by Kansas City-based Cerner Corp.

Expected to take several years to complete, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs plans to have Cerner’s system in place at all VA locations by 2028, a project estimated to cost $16 billion.

The major transfer will put the VA and the U.S. Department of Defense on the same health record system.

The Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center is the first to have the new Cerner EHR system up and running. In addition to the Spokane, Wash., center, the deployment included four community-based outpatient clinics in Washington, Montana and Idaho, and a VA business operations center in Las Vegas, according to a Monday release.

Earlier this month, the VA said it had migrated clinical and demographic data for about 88,000 veterans in preparation for the launch. The VA said in a release that the data transfer and launch will let clinicians and staff access and update patient information in the EHR system rather than having to use multiple systems.

“Giving our VA clinicians quick, secure access to patient data means we are making progress to improve veteran safety and health outcomes,” VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said in an Oct. 15 release.

The VA signed a contract with Cerner to provide a modernize its health IT system in May 2018. Cerner’s contract was valued at $10 billion, but cost estimates for the larger project increased to $16.1 billion to support the VA’s existing records system until the conversion is complete. Plans call for the new EHR system to be in place at all VA facilities by 2028.

The VA awarded the work to Cerner in a no-bid contract — a move that attracted political attention. Cerner was attractive to the VA because of its previously awarded contract to provide a new EHR system for the Defense Department. In September, the U.S. Coast Guard — part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — deployed Cerner’s EHR system at four pilot facilities.