The initial rollout of the Defense Department’s latest electronic health record system from Cerner Corp. has been postponed due to the technical issues encountered during the time of testing. The DoD postpones initial deployment of latest EHR system because of certain technical errors.
DoD had decided to reach initial operational capability for the EHR system—known as Military Health System (MHS) GENESIS—by the month of December. But that schedule will be expanded by some months into next year as the department works to resolve the technical errors including the integration of Cerner’s commercial software with the legacy military health systems. So that is why the DoD postpones initial deployment of latest EHR system because of certain technical errors.
In the month of July 2015, the Pentagon granted a $4.3 billion contract award to a Leidos-Cerner team to advance the DoD’s EHR system, replacing legacy military health networks and promoting greater efficiencies by leveraging the commercial-off-the-shelf Cerner Millennium solution.
A previous EHR deployment was slated to start in the month of December at military sites in the Pacific Northwest and sustaining across all DoD services over several years. But, now those plans have been postponed or delayed.
“The modification is implemented by the aggressive schedule and problems identified during the time of testing that led to the determination that more time is required to correct these problems,” in accordance to a statement from DoD.
The delay isn’t surprising given that an audit issued earlier this season of summer by the DoD’s Office of the Inspector General summarized that the EHR program schedule was at the threat of not meeting initial needs by the end of 2016. Auditors had pointed out that “risks and potential delays included in developing and testing the interfaces required to interact with legacy systems, making sure that the system is protective against cyber attacks, and making sure that the fielded system works precisely and that users are properly trained.”
Although, at the period, Stacy Cummings, program executive officer for the Defense Healthcare Management Systems program compelled that DoD was conducting testing both prior to and during the time of deployment to make certain that its interfaces were working, adding that she was confident that it would be ready in the month of December for the 1st installations. Now, the Pentagon has changed its tune.
“During the time of testing of the system, we recognized the requirement for more time before initial deployment to make sure that we are offering the best possible user experience to our beneficiaries and healthcare providers,” stated Cummings in a written statement.
“We’re completely supportive of our customer’s decision,” stated Melissa Lee Koskovich, senior vice president and director of communications and marketing at Leidos. “Our priority is making certain that the program’s long-term success.”
Cerner didn’t comment on the schedule delay itself. Although, a spokesperson for the EHR vendor released an optimistic statement about the future direction of the contract and the reasons behind why the DoD postpones initial deployment of latest EHR system because of certain technical errors.
“We are glad that we remain in good position for an on-time, enterprise-wide deployment and are capable to facilitate this extra configuration and testing for the initial operating capability pilot sites so that the system is performing at an optimal level when scaled across entire MHS facilities,” claimed Marlene Bentley, Cerner’s public relations program manager.
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