The new VA patient scheduling solution aims to cut administrative burden while it is utilized on a single EHR workflow.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has launched the Centralized Scheduling Solution (CSS), a new appointment scheduling EHR tool at the VA Central Ohio Healthcare System, as part of its Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) endeavor.
The appointment scheduling solution aims to simplify the scheduling process to ensure efficiency for veteran patients and VA providers at medical visits. VA plans to implement the EHR tool at all VA health facilities to expedite patient care throughout the health facilities.
“VA has delivered an enhanced scheduling system that will benefit Veterans and health care providers,” acting VA Deputy Secretary Pamela Powers, said in a statement.
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“This is another successful launch of a major milestone in the EHRM effort and will optimize Veterans’ access to health care by improving appointment scheduling. CSS also provides an efficient and transparent method of identifying and eliminating double bookings, flagging canceled appointments and maximizing provider time spent with patients.”
The organization said CSS aims to address current administrative challenges by implementing a streamlined appointment management tool that is easy to read on a single workflow and offers scheduling by resources, such as room, clinician, or equipment.
Currently, the organization’s scheduling solution requires the user to log into multiple software applications to access the calendars, rooms, clinicians, and equipment. This process is a burden on VA administrators and users.
In January, VA canceled its contract with Epic to implement its scheduling system, in favor of Cerner’s EHR scheduling solution.
This announcement comes just two weeks after POLITICO reported VA is planning to resume the launch of its EHRM program in October 2020, following the organization’s third delay since November 2019.
The organization plans to resume the launch even though EHRM interoperability is not operating as intended, and a more extensive EHR version is needed for larger health systems, according to POLITICO’s congressional sources. As a result, this may require further delays and a need for additional resources.
A lack of crucial information from several future VA sites is also impacting the department’s estimates for the cost of physical upgrades.
While a VA spokesperson disagreed with the assessment, the spokesperson said the organization was “in the process of doing site surveys related to cabling and other network equipment.”
“At this time, the majority of the sites have had initial assessments for network infrastructure, providing a more complete picture of the required components, including cabling that needs upgrading for the new EHR,” the spokesperson said to POLITICO.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, the Cerner-led EHR project was originally set to launch by the end of 2019, before being pushed to late March 2020. Then, the VA announced another delay to July 2020, due to integration issues.
These reports arise amid previous setbacks in the EHRM development.
In late-April, an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report, centered around the EHRM system, found a variety of potential patient safety issues and EHR capability problems that could occur when the new system launches across the affiliated health systems.
The OIG investigation was prompted when a VA spokesperson stated that six weeks before the initial March 28 launch date, the implementation was only 75 to 80 percent complete at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, WA.
While the VA said it is aiming to provide the best patient care as possible by way of the 2018 VA MISSION Act, OIG said the new EHR system might not be able to live up to those goals. OIG noted a lack of EHR system stability, a need to use workarounds, poor EHR usability, and a lack of proper EHR training.
Source: EHR Intelligence