The Department of Veterans Affairs secured a $155 million contract with Perspecta, an IT service company, to provide technical support for the department's EHR system.
Three notes:
1. The contract, which has the potential to last up to five years, requires Perspecta to continue technical, managerial and administrative support of the agency's Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture, or VistA, EHR system.
2. Perspecta has been maintaining and supporting VistA for more than 20 years. The company targets clients in healthcare, defense and intelligence, among other markets.
3. Under the follow-on contract, Perspecta will also lead an expertise center to diagnose and troubleshoot technical issues. The center will include systems performance monitoring, hardware and software trouble and infrastructure and technical performance management.
The VA is currently under a 10-year contract to transition to Cerner's EHR, and its first three medical centers in the Pacific Northwest are expected to test the system's initial operational capabilities in March 2020.