Cerner Corporation announced the historic and successful first deployment of a modern electronic health record (EHR) at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, WA. This is the first time in history three federal departments are using the same EHR — a historic milestone toward improving the secure and seamless exchange of health information across the federal government.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) now joins the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Homeland Security, via the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), in the successful deployment of Cerner-powered technology that will create a single health record for 18 million Service members, Veterans plus their family members. The technology is designed to provide Service members a smoother transition when they leave active duty, as well as provide VA clinicians the information they need to help Veterans get quality individualized care.
In addition to the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center, the EHR was implemented at its four community-based outpatient clinics across Washington, Montana and Idaho, as well as the West Consolidated Patient Account Center, a VA business operations facility in Las Vegas.
“We’re honored to join VA, DOD and Coast Guard in their mission to provide better health care for Service members and Veterans,” said Brent Shafer, chairman and CEO, Cerner. “We share a sharp focus on interoperability that delivers data where it needs to go, regardless of its origination. These federal modernization programs will not only transform care, but they have the power to launch innovations that could shape the future of health care for everyone.”
VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) and the DoD Healthcare Management System Modernization (DHMSM) programs enable improved health care delivery across the industry, including high cybersecurity standards and innovative approaches to standardizing health data and clinical workflows.
“This new system is much more than an EHR,” said Travis Dalton, president, Cerner Government Services. “It is a platform to help drive interoperability across the continuum of care and ensure data flows between federal agencies and to commercial partners. This can help improve health outcomes, create public health infrastructure, enable more effective predictive clinical models and create better informed research critical to solving some of the nation’s most pressing health challenges, such as suicide and the opioid epidemic. Though there is still much work to be done, this go-live, along with the deployment of Cerner’s Centralized Scheduling Solution at Columbus and joint health information exchange are key proof points that EHRM is and will continue to be a success. We congratulate VA on this historic achievement and are proud to support this momentous initiative.”
Since 2019 and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Cerner and its federal clients achieved other milestones including:
One of the most comprehensive health data migrations in history.
Launch of the new joint health information exchange, powered by Cerner.
Successful deployment of the Centralized Scheduling Solution, at the VA Central Ohio Healthcare System, replacing Epic’s Medical Appointment Scheduling System (MASS).
Expansion of DOD, VA and USCG new joint HIE – connecting with the CommonWell Health Alliance™ nationwide network – adding more than 15,000 hospitals and clinics to the HIE.
Deployment of DOD’s MHS GENESIS to additional 10 sites and the USCG goes live at first four sites.
