SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — The Secretary of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Denis McDonough, visited the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center on Wednesday evening.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is reviewing its electronic health record system after Eastern Washington Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers raised concerns about the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center. He said he visited Spokane because of the Congresswoman's note.
McMorris Rodgers, who represents Washington's 5th Congressional District, wrote a letter to McDonough urging him to review the Cerner electronic health record (EHR) system. She wrote in part that her Spokane and Colville offices were receiving "an increasing number of complaints and pleas for help."
McDonough, McMorris Rodgers and Medical Center Director Dr. Robert Fischer heard from local veterans and VA employees on how decisions made at the national-level impact veterans here in Spokane. The Secretary took some time to answer some of KREM 2's Morgan Trau's questions, including what the biggest problems plaguing the new VA health record system are. He told Trau he had a few major concerns.
"I'm worried... about the impact on productivity," the Secretary said. "And let's just be really clear what I mean by productivity, I mean about access for our vets to care.
"This is my second concern, we know that our VA professionals are very motivated by the opportunity to give care to our vets, and they do it better than anyone. And anything that comes between them and being able to do that impacts them in terms of stress and morale, so I'm worried about that, too.
"The third thing that I'm worried about and have been worried about is training and was there enough investment upfront and training, understanding the very complex systems that we have in the VA, and making sure that those are translated into a system and an electronic health record system that actually helps our practitioners. But then at the end of the day just means better outcomes for our veterans. And then, of course, over the course of this review we'll be looking also at questions around additional requirements, cost, interaction with DoD and then we'll make some decisions about next steps as we get to the end of that."
The VA announced its intentions to adopt the Cerner EHR system-wide several years ago. Cerner is a publicly-traded company that sells health IT platforms, and has billions of dollars in contracts with the US government. Previously, VA centers used a custom-built system called VistA. The federal government decided to adopt Cerner not only at the VA, but within the Department of Defense, so that medical information for both active duty members and veterans would be on the same system.
The strategic review will focus on identifying areas for additional productivity and clinical workflow optimization at Mann-Grandstaff and upcoming “go-live” sites, conducting further research into Veteran-centered improvements for the patient portal experience, data syndication and revenue cycle improvements, the VA wrote in its release.
When asked by Trau while he was touring, if there were any bells ringing in his head regarding what aspects from his review he plans on implementing, McDonough said he always has bells ringing in his head when he sees his VA staff.
"The things that they do, how they do it, the absolute commitment, and we have this tradition where we have a short award ceremony and one of our teammates looked at us and I just said 'you're doing such a good job' and she looked at us and she said, 'I love my veterans.' So how can you not be motivated by that?" he responded. "I'm worried about the training. And [if we] are giving our teammates here access to everything they need to get maximum outcomes for our veterans."
McMorris Rodgers jumped in to answer the question, as well.
"As we were meeting with various providers here, just the commitment and the positive feedback that we were receiving in the midst of what has been a difficult time here at Mann-Grandstaff," McMorris Rodgers said. "I share the concern about the training, they did not feel like they were prepared for success."
The review into the new health record system still has about two months left, but McDonough wanted to assure veterans in Spokane that he is doing everything he can to keep everyone safe.
"We will judge ourselves by outcomes for our veterans and first and foremost we're focused on safety," he said. "And so, that informs our decisions as it relates to this electronic health record as well."
They did share good news at the very end, though. Fischer said that unless they see another COVID-19 outbreak, the VA is fully expecting to open the doors to a 24/7 urgent care center by the end of this 2021.