DOD resists adopting VA EMR system
The Department of Defense (DoD) has resisted recent calls from lawmakers that it should adopt an electronic medical record system such as the VistA software used by Veterans Affairs.
           
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Stephen Jones in a recent letter defending the DoD’s current system, said that adopting a system like VistA isn’t feasible. The department’s current electronic medical record, called AHLTA, is currently used at 122 military sites and holds records for over 8.3 million active service members and their families.
           
Jones states that the VA system was instead constructed as a repository for veterans who do not deploy or change locations at a comparable rate. Thus, the VA system would require considerable redesigns that would produce a great deal of cost and time and slow down DoD’s productivity.
           
He urged instead that various players on the federal level work together towards interoperability of the currently available EMR systems.
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