VA Seeks Information on EHR Replacement for VistA

The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued a request for information seeking industry feedback on how the VA might transition from its legacy electronic health record system to a commercial EHR. While it continues to modernize the decades-old Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) system, the VA is having second thoughts about whether the legacy EHR is able to meet its needs going forward.

“Over the years and due to local customization, there are few standard data elements, a variety of complex algorithms and heterogeneous mix of legacy hardware and software supporting 130 unique VistA instances across the VA enterprise, making modernization and standardization efforts extremely complicated, expensive and time consuming,” states the VA’s request for information.

“In order to deliver the vision of health care quality, access, choice and Veteran well-being, the Veteran Health Administration (VHA) requires effective, robust, and modern information technology systems,” it adds. In a written statement, the VHA said it is “still gathering information to help form future decisions” and that “there is much work to do to make this strategy an actionable plan, and requests for information (RFI) are part of the process as we work through the project planning”...