Byrne Says Aging Health IT Infrastructure Complicates VA EHR Rollout

James Byrne, acting deputy secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), told a Senate panel that the aging health IT infrastructure at VA facilities might complicate implementation of his agency’s electronic health record (EHR) modernization effort. Byrne said his department has identified “limiting features” that could impact the timeline and cost of the EHR implementation. Among those are the communications closets, which house IT systems and devices at VA facilities. “We don’t yet know what these communications closets look like in our various facilities,” Byrne told the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee during his May 16 confirmation hearing. Despite these limiting features, Byrne remains “pretty bullish” about meeting the timeline and cost targets of the EHR implementation, which is expected to take 10 years and cost $16 billion, up from an original $10 billion estimate. “I’m not going to make any promises that we are going to accelerate it, but 10 years seems like a long time to me. We are setting up the foundation and governance for the EHRM [EHR modernization] execution. When we rollout the IOC [initial operating capability], we are going to get a much clearer picture of our ability to accelerate this rollout across the country,” he noted.