Lawmakers are concerned that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Oracle Health EHR rollout could require the government to hire many additional staffers, Military.com reported.
During a recent hearing, legislators pointed to the launch of an Oracle Health EHR at Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, Ill., that necessitated nearly 200 new employees and 800 temporary workers, according to the July 25 article. The lawmakers worried the same could happen as the EHR expands across the VA.
"The need for facilities to hire more people to do the same task will limit their ability to fill other vacancies," U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., said at a July 22 House subcommittee hearing covered by the news outlet. "This could have a disastrous effect on veterans' access to VA healthcare and would lead to further expansion of community care."
Oracle Health maintains it will not go over its $16 billion budget for the project, but that number doesn't include incidentals such as increased staff and training, according to the story. A 2022 Institute for Defense Analyses report estimated that the EHR could cost more than $50 billion over its lifetime. Becker's reached out to Oracle Health for comment.
At the hearing, Neil Evans, MD, acting executive director of EHR modernization at the VA, praised the Lovell Federal Health Care Center's EHR rollout and said the facility is already experiencing benefits, according to the news outlet. He added that he "didn't know where the number $50 billion comes from" but said that estimated costs will have to be revised closer to the restart of the VA EHR project, which had been delayed because of technical problems.
"We agree that a life-cycle cost estimate is critical for this program," Dr. Evans said, according to Military.com. "One of the things that we've said is that, as part of this reset, as we move toward restart and a new deployment schedule, that we would deliver a revised life-cycle cost estimate."