Local vets advocates encouraged over VA records overhaul
The ambitious plan to overhaul the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs electronic health records system is being met with optimism locally, with President Trump already calling it “one of the biggest wins for our veterans in decades.”
VA Secretary David Shulkin said yesterday the next-generation system will consolidate a service member’s Defense Department military records and Veterans Administration health care records into one system, saving time and frustration.
Michael Devin, a Marine captain from Dorchester and spokesman for the Massachusetts Military Veterans Alliance, said the system would address delays and miscommunication that often frustrate disabled vets seeking care.
“This streamlines that, which is great. Cuts out the steps, cuts out the money expended to get vets expedited,” Devin said.
Trump — who hyped the change on Twitter as “one of the biggest wins for our VETERANS in decades. Our HEROES deserve the best!” — said the federal government has struggled for decades to seamlessly transfer medical records, which now requires several layers of bureaucracy.
“In recent years it has taken not just days or weeks, but many months for the records to follow the veteran. This has caused massive problems for our veterans,” Trump said. “I’m very proud to say that we are finally taking steps to solve this situation once and for all.”
A spokesman for state Secretary of Veterans’ Services Francisco Urena said in a statement, “The BakerPolito Administration is committed to providing our veterans with the quality health care they deserve and we look forward to working with our federal partners as they implement new technology that will reduce wait times and improve the level of care they are delivering to almost 365,000 Massachusetts veterans.”
Shulkin said the VA’s existing, homegrown medical records system is “in need of major modernization,” and will be replaced by an offthe-shelf commercial system developed by Cerner Corp., a Kansas City firm that’s part of a team that designed a similar system for the Pentagon for $4.3 billion.
A price tag was not disclosed for the VA deal, which Shulkin said will not be put out to competitive bid under a “public interest exception” so it can be implemented more quickly.
Nevertheless, Devin is concerned about implementing the system.
“Any implementation of technology is obviously a scary part,” he said. “We’ve just got to make sure nobody falls through the cracks in the meantime.”