VA giving DoD 'time and space' on iEHR

As Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gets up to speed on the integrated electronic health record, the Veterans Affairs Department is helping provide him with information he needs to make decisions on the project's future, said VA's Acting Chief Information Officer Stephen Warren during an April 25 press call.

"Secretary Hagel had asked for some time, for him to get his arms around what is the program and what the needs are," said Warren. "We've said we're glad to give him the time and space he needs to allow him to do what he needs to do."

Hagel recently told  a House committee that the department halted a planned request for proposals for an electronic health record. The department had been close to starting the process for buying a commercial, proprietary code EHR, and a proprietary strategy appeared to have the upper hand following a February announcement by then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki that both departments would stop development on a core, joint EHR system...