Auditor: CalVet paid nearly $28M on ‘flawed’ EHR

California spent almost $28 million for a “flawed” electronic health record system for its veterans’ homes, according to a new state auditor report.

The California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) began work in 2006 on adopting an EHR system for its eight veterans' homes, known as the Enterprise-Wide Veterans Home Information System. However, CalVet made a number of mistakes in implementing the program. As a result, there has been no improvement in the veterans homes process for documenting medical care, nor a reduction in the reliance on paper records.

The system is also unstable and has so many functionality concerns, such as in medication orders, that fewer system functions have been implemented, limiting the ability to provide more consistent and efficient care.

Some of the problems the auditor found include the fact that CalVet did not exercise adequate oversight of the project, and did not complete, or partially completed, six of the 12 management oversight plans required by state policy. Of the six that it did complete, it only fully followed four.

What's more, the work of the oversight contractor CalVet hired was inadequate, especially since the contractor was hired, not only for independent project oversight (IPO), but also for verification. It failed to promptly recognize the severity of the problems and kept limited documentation, which prevented it from showing that it made prudent decisions.

The auditor has made several recommendations to be followed by September 2016, including defining project executive and project manager responsibilities; establishing formal processes, including verification that the implementation team adhere to plans; establishing a plan requiring it to use separate contractors for IPO and verification services when IPO services are not being provided directly by its Technology Department; establishing a process to improve documentation; and verifying deliverables before approving payments.

To learn more:
- read the report