Defense Secretary Considers Commercial EHR System

The Defense Department is back in the market for an electronic health-record system for its sprawling healthcare empire, according to a memorandum from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

The memo from Hagel, obtained by the website Nextgov, was addressed to Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. In it Hagel said he is “convinced that a competitive process is the optimal way to ensure we select the best value solutions for DoD.”

At a hearing last month, Hagel said he was putting on hold spending plans regarding then-current efforts to improve interoperability between the Military Health System's several EHRs and the VistA EHR system used by the healthcare arm of the Veterans Affairs Department.