Chuck Hagel’s Assessment Of iEHR: “I Didn’t Think We Knew What The Hell We Were Doing.”

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel testified before a Congressional hearing yesterday about the Integrated Electronic Health Record project: “I didn’t think we knew what the hell we were doing.” I’m glad that he put the stop to the effort after only $1 billion, the UK National Health Service blew an incredible $17 billion before pulling the plug.

This ratchet ups the rhetoric of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs’ Ward Cascells’ 2009 assesment that DoD’s AHLTA system is “Intolerable”

Not to kick a dead horse, but this has been going on for nearly 40 years now.  The DoD had spent $250 million prototyping the TRIMIS system, a collection of incompatible demonstration systems, while we at the VA were delivering a working, integrated hospital information system (DHCP) for 172 hospitals for $82 million. ...   Read more