Systems Made Simple has been picked by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to create its new scheduling system.
The Lockheed Martin-owned company will be responsible for the VA's Medical Appointment Scheduling System (MASS), which is "one component of the department's strategy to provide state of the art electronic health record, scheduling, workflow management, and analytics capabilities to front line caregivers serving veterans," according to an announcement.
MASS will make viewing and making appointments easier and simpler for vets and will also enhance appointment reminders and coordination of care, the VA adds.
The scheduling system should be deployed by 2017, FierceHealthIT previously reported.
The SMS contract is for 60 months from the day it was awarded with the option for two, 12-month extensions. The total contract value, according to the VA announcement, is $623,582,928.88.
However, the VA has its seen of troubles when it comes to health IT systems. Recently the VA's Office of Inspector General has chastised the agency for the improper use of the use of the Yammer social network. Yammer, a collaboration tool meant to help increase productivity, was not approved for employee use and had vulnerable security features, according to the report.
In addition, a VA computer glitch led to nearly 35,000 combat veterans being denied the ability to sign up for health insurance.
To learn more:
- here's the VA announcement