VA, DoD Plan To Accelerate iEHR Timeline

The Veterans Affairs and Defense departments will have a plan by early January 2013 to "meet or beat" the previously-established schedule for standing up an Integrated Electronic Health Record. "We've got to do everything we can to move this on a more expeditious path," said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during a Dec. 6 joint press briefing.

Panetta told reporters in May the iEHR will be ready in 2017 and the Veterans Affairs Department has held that early versions of the iEHR would be ready in a limited rollout in 2014. The secretaries stopped short of going on the record with a new implementation deadline during the briefing. However, Panetta said the departments agreed to "accelerating this program."...