VA CIO: Scheduling System Software Will Be Fielded By 2017, Not 2020

The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to field a new, commercial patient scheduling system by 2017, not 2020 as it said in contract documents released Sept. 17, and reported by Nextgov last week.  Stephen Warren, VA’s chief information officer, told Nextgov in an email a prominent, half-page chart in draft contracting documents for the agency’s medical appointment scheduling system did not accurately portray its goal to field the system two years after the award of the contract.

Warren noted in his email the documents were draft versions and that VA will “refine the language to be clearer that VA’s goal is to deploy the system in two years after contract award through a series of six month increments. The chart in the RFP [Request for Proposals] showing a delivery date of 2020 will be replaced with a more accurate representation of our goal.”  In a post on VA’s blog today, Warren also addressed the rollout. He wrote:

“One thing you may have heard was that the system rollout date would take longer than originally stated. We’re glad our draft release gave us a chance to catch this portrayal of our deployment plan so that we can correct it before the plan is released. VA’s goal remains to select a vendor who can meet our aggressive deployment timeline of 2 years after contract award, in six month increments or less.”...