The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense have initiated the inaugural combined implementation of a “Federal EHR” at the Captain James A. The Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (Lovell FHCC) located in North Chicago, Illinois.
Despite temporarily halting all other deployments as part of a reset of its EHR modernization program, the VA is pushing forward with deployment at Lovell FHCC. It continues to closely analyze the challenges faced by clinicians and other end users at its sites using the Federal EHR, and is establishing criteria for success to decide when to conclude the program reset and resume deployments elsewhere. The experience gained at Lovell FHCC, being the first deployment at a larger and more intricate VA healthcare facility, will play a pivotal role in informing these decisions. Additional deployments won’t be scheduled until the VA is confident in the Federal EHR’s functionality across all current sites and its readiness to serve Veterans and VA clinicians at future sites.
As the sole fully integrated VA and DOD healthcare system in the nation, Lovell FHCC caters to approximately 75,000 patients annually, including veterans, service members, their families, and Navy recruits. The joint deployment ensures that all patients receive care coordinated through a unified, integrated EHR system. The Federal EHR also enhances VA and DOD’s ability to collaborate on care coordination and data sharing with each other and the broader U.S. healthcare network.
Robert Buckley, M.D., Director of Lovell FHCC, stated, “The Federal EHR will elevate care for all beneficiaries, whether they’re Veterans, Navy recruits, students, active-duty service members, their dependents, or retirees, ensuring a seamless continuum of care to enhance our operations and optimize health outcomes.”
Neil Evans, M.D., acting program executive director of the Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office, highlighted, “This joint deployment of the Federal EHR at Lovell FHCC will deliver a more cohesive experience for patients and their caregivers. Additionally, as VA proceeds with the broader reset of our electronic health record modernization program, insights from this deployment will shape our future decisions.”
Lester Martinez-Lopez, assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, emphasized, “The launch of the Federal EHR at Lovell FHCC underscores DOD and VA’s commitment to providing seamless care from active service to veteran status, demonstrating the transformative power of technology in healthcare delivery.”
During a Feb. 15 hearing of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization, ongoing pharmacy-related patient safety concerns surfaced regarding the transition to the new Oracle electronic health record.
David Case, deputy inspector general of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, presented findings from a draft Office of Inspector General report on these pharmacy-related issues. He noted that while VA has addressed some issues related to inaccurate medication information transmission into the HDR database, concerns persist about unresolved patient safety issues related to pharmacy records. Legacy EHR sites may still contain inaccurate medication information for patients treated at both legacy and new EHR sites.
