Audit: DOD E-Health Timeline 'Not Realistic'

The Pentagon inspector general doesn't think the DOD can reach initial operational capability of its new $9 billion, "state-of-the-art" electronic health records system by December. The Defense Department's goal of having a pilot of its modernized electronic health record platform running by the year's end "may not be realistic," its inspector general said Wednesday.

DOD is in the process of migrating to a new $9 billion, "state-of-the-art" EHR system — called the DOD Healthcare Management System Modernization, or DHMSM — to replace its legacy Military Health System and keep up with advances in the health IT arena. The Pentagon awarded the system's development contract to Leidos and health IT provider Cerner Corporation in July 2015.

The IG found in its audit that "the DHMSM program mandated execution schedule may not be realistic for meeting the required initial operational capability date of December 2016." That deadline was set in the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. DOD's plan as of February 2016 was to deploy DHMSM in waves, beginning in December with initial operational capability testing in the Defense Health Agency's Puget Sound Region in the Pacific Northwest...