VA Gets Real, Suspends 45 IT Projects

The Veterans Affairs Department on Friday said it halted development of 45 information technology projects that were behind schedule or over budget, with Secretary Eric Shinseki personally making the announcement.

Shinseki, who promised to leverage technology to develop a 21st century VA during his confirmation hearing in January, said he put the brakes on the projects because "VA has a responsibility to the American people, who are investing millions of dollars in technology projects, to deliver quality results that adhere to a budget and are delivered on time."

He added, "They need to have confidence that the dollars they are spending are being effectively used to improve the lives of our Veterans."

The Housed and Senate Appropriations Committees approved a record $3.3 billion IT budget for the VA for fiscal 2010, but the Senate fenced off expenditure of roughly $1.1 billion of IT development funds until VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker completes a review of some 300 troubled IT systems.

Key projects under review by Baker include the already suspended Replacement Scheduling Application Development Program, which VA has spent $167 million on since 2001 and had budgeted at $46.5 million in fiscal 2010. VA also halted development of the Pharmacy Re-Engineering project, budgeted at $20.5 million for fiscal 2010, and a Health Data Repository for the new HealtheVet electronic health record system, which had a planned $41.5 million budget for fiscal 2010.

Baker said all the suspended projects will be run through the department's new Program Management Accountability System before they get a go-ahead. "Our goal is to increase our success rate for our systems development projects," Baker said.

The other IT projects* halted by VA until the review is completed are:

HealtheVet Middleware Services

Person Service Identity Management

Administrative Data Repository

Document & Ancillary Imaging

Clinical Data Service

VA Learning Management

Home Telehealth Development

Occupational Health Record Keeping System

Enrollment System Redesign

Chemistry & Hematology: Automation

Clinical Flow Sheet

E-Gov: E-Training

Barcode Expansion

Delivery Service

Organization Service

Enrollment System Redesign

Home Telehealth Infrastructure Enhancements

Radiology outside Reporting

Bar Code Medication Administration Inpatient Medication Request

Blood Bank system

Prosthetics Enhancements

VIC (Veterans Identification Card) Development

Spinal Cord Injury & Disorders Outcomes

Radiology HL7 Interface Update

Ward Drug Dispensing Equipment Interface

Lab Data Sharing & Interoperability - Anatomic Pathology/Microbiology

Medical Foster Home system

Exclaims Plus

Case Management Modification

National Teleradiology Program

Compensation and Pension Record Interchange

Master Patient Index

RMS - Rights Management Server

National Teleradiology Program

Problem List Standardization

Radiology Standardization

Laboratory Data Sharing Interface Terminology Support

Clinical/Health Data Repositories Phase II

Fee Data/ Health Care Effectiveness through Resource Optimization Health Care Effectiveness through Resource Optimization

* Total projects listed do not add up to 45 due to multiple pharmacy re-engineering and health data repository projects