The Department of Veteran Affairs' migrated data, transferred during the rollout of its new EHR, failed to meet physicians' needs, FedScoop reported Feb. 1.
An audit, conducted by the Government Accountability Office from August 2019 to February 2022, detailed the challenges physicians faced trying to access patient data as the department failed to monitor data accessibility, accuracy and appropriateness during the migration from the VA National Data Center to Cerner's data center.
Physicians reported being unable to access patient information like allergies, medications and immunizations. Physicians interviewed in the audit also stated that data errors were present.
The Accountability Office stated in the report that the department did not set goals and performance measures for migrated data, causing the challenges.
"Until VA uses such measures and goals to better ensure the quality of migrated data, the department could deploy a new EHR system that does not meet clinicians' needs and poses risks to the continuity of patient care," the report stated.