McMorris Rodgers phone calls for VA to delay troubled personal computer system’s start in Walla Walla
WASHINGTON – Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers on Thursday questioned the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs to delay the March 26 launch in Walla Walla of a troubled laptop or computer program that has brought about various difficulties since it was rolled out in Spokane a lot more than a year back.
In a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough, McMorris Rodgers asked that the new electronic health file technique produced by Cerner Corp. not be deployed in the southeast Washington metropolis until finally the department fixes complications that have delayed treatment and still left staff fatigued and demoralized. The computer software would swap an present process wellbeing care companies use to coordinate care and monitor vital affected person details.
“Veterans in my district continue to wrestle with delayed and faulty prescriptions, as properly as bottlenecks in referrals to experts or local community treatment,” McMorris Rodgers wrote, incorporating that the procedure “is however earning lifetime harder on veterans and VA companies, not simpler.”
“I am inquiring you to right away hold off the deployment of the Cerner digital health and fitness report method to Walla Walla,” she continued, “until VA leadership can exhibit its readiness and performance.”
On Jan. 14, VA introduced that a prepared March 5 launch of the process at its facility in Columbus, Ohio, would be delayed by about two months owing to a surge of COVID-19 instances. At the time, a VA spokeswoman mentioned the office would probably delay “go-live” dates in Walla Walla and other services but declined to say when all those selections would be declared.
In a assertion, VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes mentioned the office experienced “received the letter from the Congresswoman and will deal with it appropriately,” without having stating no matter if the launch would be delayed.
A Spokesman-Assessment investigation in December uncovered the program, developed underneath a $10 billion contract VA signed with Cerner in 2018, has prompted a litany of troubles since it was launched in Oct 2020 at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Healthcare Middle in Spokane and its affiliated outpatient clinics in Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint, Wenatchee and Libby, Montana.
In her letter, McMorris Rodgers, a Republican whose district consists of Spokane and Walla Walla, also repeated a previous request that McDonough or Deputy Secretary Donald Remy, the VA official in demand of the challenge, visit the Mann-Grandstaff VA Healthcare Center in Spokane. Remy fulfilled almost with staff at the healthcare facility in November following canceling an in-particular person visit, a modify the department attributed to flight disruptions.
According to a tentative rollout program VA launched Dec. 1, the prepared launches in Columbus and Walla Walla will be followed by Roseburg and White Metropolis, Oregon, on June 11, then Boise on June 25 and Anchorage, Alaska, on July 16. Major assessments for the troubled program would then appear with deployments at significant VA hospitals in Puget Sound on Aug. 27, a few websites in Michigan on Oct. 8 and in Portland on Nov. 5.
