GAO report details faltering Veteran’s Administration records upgrade program

A US spending watchdog has delivered another withering verdict on the Department of Veterans Affairs’ efforts to drag its health records program into the 21st century.

A Government Accountability Office report released today confirms that the Veteran’s Health Administration has yet to act on more than a dozen earlier recommendations for the current multi-billion dollar effort. Some of the unresolved issues date back to 2020, raising concerns about the entire project.

The VHA operates one of the largest heath care systems in the US, supporting in excess of nine million veterans. According to the GAO report, its current "technically complex system" - the existing Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture - has been in operation for upwards of 30 years.

The system is costly to maintain, and "does not optimally support VA’s need to electronically exchange health records with other organizations, such as the Department of Defense (DOD) and ...