VA deployed its EHR at three Indiana facilities as officials highlighted lessons learned, AI tools and preparations for future rollouts.<\/p>\n
The Department of Veterans Affairs deployed its new electronic health record system<\/a> to three facilities in Indiana Thursday, marking the latest step in the department\u2019s accelerated nationwide rollout.<\/p>\n The latest deployments include the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, the Fort Wayne VA Medical Center and the Marion VA Medical Center. Indiana represents the third wave of EHR deployment<\/a>s since VA restarted its rollout in Michigan in April, followed by Ohio in June.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a transformational moment for VA healthcare,\u201d VA Deputy Secretary and Acting CIO Paul Lawrence said at the launch ceremony Thursday in Indianapolis, Indiana.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing live in Michigan was the restart, and for the naysayers out there, Michigan proved we could do it right. \u2026 \u00a0Some wondered if Michigan was a fluke, but two months later, Ohio delivered, and those deployments proved Michigan wasn\u2019t just a lucky break \u2014 they proved the model works,\u201d he said. \u201cToday we\u2019re celebrating momentum. Consider this: before Secretary Collins arrived, the electronic health record had been deployed in just six sites over the course of five years. By the time I leave Indiana, we\u2019ll have had 11 successful deployments in just under five months.\u201d<\/p>\n EHR Deployments Gather Momentum<\/p>\n As the rollouts progress, they become easier, Lawrence told GovCIO Media & Research. He noted there was some concern about the Michigan EHR launch in April. However, after its successful launch, the VA built on that momentum to help with subsequent regional rollouts in Ohio and now Indiana.<\/p>\n Another benefit of the rollout is increased communication among VA facilities preparing to transition to the new system.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s happening is everybody\u2019s talking to everybody else,\u201d Lawrence said.<\/p>\n Staff at facilities awaiting their EHR deployments are contacting colleagues at sites where the system is already operational, visiting those facilities and sharing information about how the technology works in practice. Lawrence cited pharmacists in Minneapolis who connected with colleagues in Ohio to learn about the system and begin preparing ahead of their own deployment.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re learning faster than we can train them by calling their friends,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Input from Super Users<\/p>\n VA is also relying on a network of EHR \u201csuper users\u201d to support employees and provide feedback during deployments<\/a>.<\/p>\n About one in every 10 VA employees involved in a deployment is designated as a super user, Lawrence said. These employees receive additional EHR training and develop expertise in how the system supports their particular clinical or operational areas.<\/p>\n Each facility selects its own super users based on their familiarity with the system and expertise in specific medical practices. During deployments, they help colleagues troubleshoot problems and answer questions in real time.<\/p>\n VA also brings several groups of support personnel to deployment sites, including Oracle adoption coaches, specialized medical practitioners and \u201cpay-it-forward\u201d staff from facilities that previously transitioned to the system. Super users provide another layer of on-the-ground support.<\/p>\n \u201cOver and over again, it\u2019s the super users that are jumping in to answer the questions when someone gets stuck or can\u2019t remember something. They\u2019re here, you know them. \u2026 they\u2019re proving invaluable, and that investment has really paid off,\u201d Lawrence said.<\/p>\n Preparation Pays Off<\/p>\n Each EHR deployment is the culmination of nearly two years of preparation, said Neil Evans, program executive director for VA Electronic Health Record Modernization.<\/p>\n That work includes technical and infrastructure upgrades as well as preparing thousands of employees to use the new system to care for patients.<\/p>\n \u201cWe spend almost two years preparing technical preparations, infrastructure here at the medical center and at associated clinics, working with all of the staff who will be adopting the electronic health record, working through what the change is going to look like, familiarizing them with the solution,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n This work is also coupled with learning labs, where staff can meet with their teams and practice using the solution.<\/p>\n AI Tools Support VA Staff<\/p>\n The department is also deploying AI-powered tools to help clinicians and other employees use the system more efficiently, including Ambient Scribe<\/a> and ChatEHR.<\/p>\n Ambient Scribe is a tool that dictates and records patient-clinician conversations and converts that information into medical notes. This saves clinicians time otherwise spent generating these notes instead of helping other patients.<\/p>\n ChatEHR is an AI-enabled chatbot trained on validated information about the federal EHR, Evans said. The tool incorporates VA training materials, quick-reference guides and tip sheets, giving employees a faster way to find information that previously required searching through files on shared drives.<\/p>\n \u201cNow end users can go to ChatEHR and we can get you some statistics,\u201d he said. He added that adoption of the tool \u201chas been quite impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n