Asking the VA Questions Gets a Response

Ask and you shall receive. Knock and the door will be opened. E-mail, and you'll get a response.

In yesterday's blog post, I posed the question: Why hasn't the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department taken its vaunted VistA electronic health-record system down to the neighborhood ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Body to put it through its paces?...

...And then I wondered aloud electronically why the VA hasn't bothered to have its own VistA version tested and certified as compliant with the meaningful-use criteria that the feds have imposed on other EHR system developers. I promised that I'd let you all know if I ever heard back from the VA in response to questions I had sent them about it.

Well, no sooner than yesterday's blog had hit the electronic ether than I received an e-mail from VA spokeswoman Laurie Tranter. Here's what the VA has to say about certification...