IT projects at VA at risk, says GAO

Information technology management issues that caused the Veterans Affairs Department to spend $127 million on a failed outpatient scheduling application could harm a second attempt to create such a system.

The Government Accountability Office, in a report released June 28, says a "broad range of managerial weaknesses plagued the project from beginning to end" until the program, called the Scheduling Replacement Project, was canceled on Sept. 30, 2009. Now the department is starting over with an effort dubbed HealtheVet Scheduling, but has yet to institute management controls that would make a repeat performance of the failed project less likely, the report warns.