VA To Buy, Not Build, New Scheduling System For VistA

Within months the Veterans Affairs Department plans to issue a request for proposal for the purchase of a new patient scheduling module that would work within the Veterans Health Information System Technology Architecture, or VistA.

The department – known for building rather than buying many of the applications that plug into VistA's open source chassis – has long touted the clinical strengths of the health record. But VA Chief Information Officer Stephen Warren recently acknowledged that the administrative features of the system fall short.

Scheduling, for example, is "not supported at the level they needed to have been," and the department will seek a commercial solution, said Warren during a June 10 hearing before the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee on efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs and the federal workforce...