Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins told lawmakers on Tuesday, in his first Capitol Hill appearance since his confirmation in early February, that he is focused on why the VA has been considered high-risk by the Government Accountability Office – and is interested in which agency programs deliver "return on investment."
While the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing Tuesday often focused, sometimes contentiously, on the department's staffing and contract reductions over the past three months, Collins spoke positively about breaking down internal departmental silos that he says have been hampering the VA's Oracle Health electronic health record (EHR) implementation.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., questioned Collins on how recent department cuts would affect the rollout of the new EHR to more VA facilities next year.
Collins said that Dr. Neil Evans, the acting program executive director of VA's EHR Modernization Integration Office, has been included in conversations about the VA’s workforce reorganization efforts, which included staffing and contract cuts.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., noted that cuts of the department's IT staff would likely affect the EHR rollouts, which Collins did not address when he answered her.
"I think IT staff are important if we are going to make sure we don't lose records of our veterans," she said.
Despite persistent and often still-unresolved issues at VA Medical Centers – including Mann-Grandstaff in Spokane, Washington – planned EHR rollouts are moving forward because "the onus" has been put back on Oracle Health to complete the project, Collins told Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
Collins said he's consolidated "eight or nine committees" into one group to directly engage with Oracle on the EHR deployment. For its part, Oracle has said the project could now be accelerated, he explained.
In February, Oracle Health Executive VP Seema Verma gave lawmakers an overview of plans to more quickly scale system deployment to the remaining 164 VA healthcare facilities.
Meanwhile, the GAO questioned simultaneous EHR system improvements and new deployments in a report released the same week.
"We’re accelerating the deployment of our modern electronic health record system, after the program was nearly dormant under the Biden Administration," Collins said in his written testimony.
But according to Verma's own testimony, completion of more than 3,000 changes to improve stability, add functions and make fixes during a program reset period that began in 2023 has been foundational to pursuing new system rollouts.
Blackburn expressed concerns about the VA having "trouble" getting employees to show up for training on the EHR and then utilizing the system.
Collins assured her that EHR training will be a priority of system rollouts at the VA.
Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
