Mike Sicilia, Oracle executive vice president, told legislators at a July 20 Senate Veterans' Affairs committee hearing that the Cerner EHR system will be moved to a cloud data center to enhance the system's functionality.
Mr. Sicilia said Oracle intended to complete the migration of the Cerner EHR system to the cloud within the next six to nine months and that the move would improve the system's performance.
"Candidly, we anticipate this change alone will be the single most important change we make in terms of system reliability," said Mr. Sicilia. "It will also provide a scalable, modern platform for us to deliver the kind of future releases users have come to expect, like mobility and predictive analytics."
The Oracle executive said the company will move the EHR to a cloud data center at no extra cost to the Coast Guard, Department of Defense or the VA.
In the hearing, Mr. Sicilia also addressed the ongoing "unknown queue" issue that caused harm to 148 veterans and the functionality issue within the system's pharmacy module.
He said Oracle would address the queue issues in the following weeks and that Oracle would have a beta version of a new pharmacy module delivered within six to nine months.