VA pharmacy tech glitches put 250,000 veterans at risk, officials say – By Edward Graham (Nextgov) / Feb 16, 2024
Data transmission errors in the VA’s new commercial health record could potentially lead to providers missing important prescription information on patients who visit multiple agency facilities.
Hundreds of thousands of veterans may have had inaccurate or incorrect medication information included in their charts as a result of interoperability issues between medical facilities using the Department of Veterans Affairs’ new multi-billion dollar Oracle Cerner electronic health record system and the department’s legacy system, an official with VA’s Office of Inspector General said on Thursday.
David Case — deputy inspector general for VA’s OIG — told lawmakers that an upcoming report under review by the department found that “patients seen at both new and legacy EHR sites may be prescribed contraindicated medications, and legacy EHR providers may be making clinical decisions based on inaccurate data.”
Case spoke at a hearing of the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization convened to examining issues with VA’s new pharmacy software.
