By Chris Miller, Assistant Editor, Facility Market

Many healthcare systems have embraced electronic health record (EHR) technology in recent years as a way of digitally collecting and sharing patient data. EHR systems can bring a host of benefits, but unfortunately, their implementation is not always a smooth or successful process.

The U.S, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is removing its Cerner electronic health record (EHR) software from its system for at least six months, according to Healthcare IT News. The decision to pause service comes after findings pointed out snowballing spending and poor staff training at the department's first go-live at a VA medical center in Spokane, Washington. The VA plans to take a step back and reconfigure the system. To fix the rollout issues of its $16 billion electronic health record modernization (EHRM) program, the VA is planning to move from the site-by-site deployment to an enterprise-wide readiness method. It will make an artificial testing testing and instruction environment for veterans and providers to learn on the system before it is officially deployed again.  

Representatives of VA and Cerner are worried about the potential safety hazards of using the current EHRM program. Before deploying the new EHR, VA and Cerner did not give adequate training to clinicians and administrative staff, according to Healthcare Dive. Fifty-five percent of hospital staff surveyed stated they had some amount of difficulty documenting patient care in the EHR. 65 percent stated they could not navigate it without having trouble.

The VA also was unsuccessful in calculating a dependable life cycle cost for the program. It initially said that the EHRM would cost $16.1 billion in its entirety over a 10-year period, including $4.3 billion in IT infrastructure expenses. Despite that, the Office of the Inspector General said that the approximate costs were not precise, leaving out at least $2.5 billion in IT infrastructure costs vital to the program. This money is for upgrading the existing systems already installed at VA facilities.