Department of Veterans Affairs is on track for its 10-year Cerner EHR rollout, with plans to implement the new system at dozens of VA hospitals and medical centers each year by 2021, according to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.
In an op-ed for Marine Corps Times, Mr. Wilkie highlighted several aspects of the VA's EHR modernization efforts, including the transfer of 23.5 million veterans' health records to the agency's new shared data center with the Department of Defense.
VA anticipates achieving its goal of implementing its new Cerner-based EHR system at three VA medical centers in Washington by April 2020. The new system will deploy at Seattle, American Lake and Mann-Grandstaff medical centers, Mr. Wilkie wrote.
In 2018, VA formed a $16 billion partnership with Cerner to develop and deploy an EHR that is interoperable with the DOD's system over the next 10 years.
"The new EHR solution was a 10-year contract for a reason," Mr. Wilkie wrote. "It calls for a rolling implementation schedule through 2027, one that will move about a dozen hospitals to the new solution each year starting in 2021, along with dozens of associated VA clinics."
DOD is scheduled to go live on its Cerner EHR system at four bases in California and one in Idaho starting next month. VA is working closely with DOD throughout its implementation process to "capture lessons learned from their deployment and make VA’s implementation as smooth as possible," Mr. Wilkie added.