VA needs more time on scheduling software --
Summary
As part of its electronic health records modernization plan, the Department of Veterans Affairs is going to adopt Cerners scheduling system but its going to take longer than they thought, it was revealed a House hearing Sept. 26. "Despite being six months out from beginning system implementation, the plan seems to be in very rough shape," said Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev), who chairs the Subcommittee on Technology Modernization. One of these solutions was in the form of a $624 million contract awarded in 2015 for commercial health record provider Epics Medical Appointment Scheduling System (MASS) program. Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), said the fact that VA sunk costs into a trial of one commercial tool before adopting another "drives a little bit of the skepticism that you may be perceiving. " John Windom, executive director of the Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization, said that the Columbus facility was chosen in part because of infrastructure upgrades that were instituted to support the MASS test and because the Epic contract is expiring in less than a year.