A very short observation on EHRs and the Veterans Administration healthcare scandal

As has been in the news lately, it has been revealed that U.S. veterans' medical care was being delayed at a number of Veteran's Administration-run hospitals, perhaps many others as well not yet known.A timeline for the Veterans Administration medical scandal is here:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/05/21/veterans-healthcare-scandal-shinseki-timeline/9373227/The Obama administration is facing a serious scandal in which government officials are alleged to have falsified data to hide how long veterans were waiting to see doctors at VA hospitals. The controversy has led to calls for the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, who has served for five years. Here is a timeline of events leading up to the current situation, which President Obama on Wednesday called "intolerable" and "disgraceful."I will not comment on the issues per se.I will only make this pithy observation:The VA system possesses the best electronic medical records systems in the world, VistA CPRS, and is unhampered by EHR sellers' issues and agendas as the VA created it themselves over decades.  You can even download VistA CPRS and explore it with fictitious patients and medical data from test servers set up for that purpose, at http://www.ehealth.va.gov/EHEALTH/CPRS_demo.asp.EHR's and other clinical IT, according to not-very-impartial organizations such as the industry trade group HIMSS, the sellers themselves, and a whole cadre of pundits highly invested in th...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Management Tags: CPRS Veterans Administration medical scandal Veterans Affairs VistA Source Type: blogs