The Department of Veterans Affairs said it plans to resume work on its rollout of its $16 billion Cerner EHR system in the summer of 2024, after halting the rollout to additional facilities in April due to ongoing problems with the system.
"In the summer of 2024, we should be having, and even before that we should be having real discussions about whether we're ready to move forward with [the EHRM] restart," Neil Evans, MD, acting program executive director of the VA's EHRM Office, said during a House Appropriations Oversight hearing Sept. 13.
Mike Sicilia, executive vice president at Oracle, agreed, stating "it seems to me next summer we should be in a position, particularly if the go-live is trending well in March, that we should be in a position to resume [the rollout]. That is our expectation."
But VA Secretary Denis McDonough will have the final decision when it comes to the Cerner rollout time frame.
Currently, the Cerner EHR system has only been rolled out at VA Spokane (Wash.) Health Care System; VA Walla Walla (Wash.) Health Care; VA Roseburg (Ore.) Health Care System; White City-based VA Southern Oregon Health Care; and Whitehall-based VA Central Ohio Health Care System facilities.