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At the VA, modernizing healthcare delivery rests in patient’s control of their data
Neil Evans, acting Program Executive Director for electronic health record modernization at VA said the VA has always had some form of electronic health record.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has completed migration of all the data from it’s original records system, VISTA, into its new electronic health record (EHR).
“We actually already have that integrated record with all historical data and going forward data through what we call our Joint Longitudinal Viewer (JLV),” Neil Evans, acting program executive director for electronic health record modernization at the Department of Veterans Affairs, said on Federal Monthly Insights – Health IT. “Right now, at every VA Medical Center and every DoD healthcare facility, is a web-based application which lets the provider, or whoever is seeing the patient, see an integrated view of all of their data from the DoD, all the data from the VA and the data that’s been ingested from the commercial healthcare setting through our Joint Health Information Exchange.”
In the past year, 8.45 million records were viewed through the JLV. Health care providers at the VA were able to view records containing data from the VA, DoD, and data that originated in other healthcare systems. The Joint Health Information Exchange connects VA with over 104,000 non-VA provider sites, and 90% of U.S. hospitals. The network facilitates the exchanging of 350 million documents monthly with community care providers.
The new electronic health record will be a single instance for the entire enterprise. Every healthcare provider who cares for a veteran will be logging into the same system when delivering care. Increasing the level of access to veteran records will allow the VA to foster innovation and improve the experiences for both providers and veterans moving forward.
Patient-owned data
The most significant aspect driving the modernization of health delivery in the Department of Veterans Affairs is the concept that the data belongs to the veteran. In 2010, VA’s effort at human-centered design was behind the launch of the Blue Button Initiative, which allows veterans to download and view their own records. Since its introduction, over four million users have submitted 63.9 million download requests. Patient-owned data also offers positive staff experience improvements. VA staff benefit from a reduction in paperwork and minimizing of phone calls. Health care providers can initiate prescription services, additional notes, and respond to patients’ requests and details outside of scheduled in-office visits.
“It’s a level of convenience and engagement we’ve seen as an explosion of how technology can really improve the patient experience as they engage with their healthcare, taking some of the administrative frustration out of healthcare delivery,” Evans said on The Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
Moving forward, VA’s access to large swaths of data on all of its patients provides options for integrating artificial intelligence into healthcare delivery. Patients will benefit from AI assisted diagnosis, predictive analytics to identify at-risk behaviors, easy scheduling for virtual health appointments and predictive patient care outcomes. The My HealtheVet portal is designed to deliver tailored information to veterans. The ultimate goal is better healthcare experiences and outcomes for patients.
“One of the things that we’ve been thinking a lot about in VA is that veterans utilize VA services for a lot more than just healthcare. We’re a benefits provider as well as disability benefits, vocational rehabilitation, the list goes on with regard to home loans. When a veteran wants to engage with VA, they want to engage with VA as a veteran with regard to all the services that we as the department can provide to them, not just their health information,” Evans said.
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