Democrats Don't Care About Verterans

[Kondor3]

I don't know where all they've rolled out Cerner. I have been forced to use it at the Mann Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane for more than two years and it is still more cumbersome than before the roll out. I don't understand why they need four different systems to log in either. I mean MyHealtheVet worked fine for me. Now they have IDme, Login.gov, and DS Logon as well. The more of this crap they add, the less intuitive it is.

Yep. Spokane is one of the Early Test Sites. And I hear it hasn't gone well.

I am guessing it is because they took a good off-the-shelf package and then tried to over-customize it to behave more like the VA's old one.

I hear that the DoD's edition of Cerner is 75-80% complete in its rollout.

If that's true about the DoD edition... perhaps the VA should just take the DoD version of the thing and abandon its own customizing efforts.

If the VA needs functionality over-and-above what the DoD edition offers, then the VA can work with Cerner-Oracle to build bolt-on bridged subsystems.

Thereby leaving the core-system exactly the same as what the DoD is using.

And that would allow the VA to flush its own deployment project team and let the DoD take over on the VA side as well.

And your right about simplification and intuitiveness... Less Is More...

 

[Tumblin Tumbleweed]

Oracle? You mean the Cerner system that the VA bought? That's only been rolled-out at... what... five or six Medical Centers out of the 160 or so that they operate. Are you talking about the online experience at one of those thus-equipped facilities or are you talking about the older tech used at the rest of the Centers?

Yes, he likely means Cerner. The older tech is called VistA, and it's still at a majority of VAs.

 

[Kondor3]

Yes, he likely means Cerner. The older tech is called VistA, and it's still at a majority of VAs.

Yep. VistA is the ancient character-based system written in M.U.M.P.S. and CPRS is the GUI (Windows-like) that sits on top of that ancient database.

It should have been retired and replaced way-the-hell back in the 80's... or the 90's at the very latest... but they kept sinking $$$ into it long past its prime.

Years ago then-Secretary McDonald testified before Congress that it was his intent to get the VA out of the software-writing business... a righteous judgment.

 

[Tumblin Tumbleweed]

CPRS is the GUI (Windows-like) that sits on top of that ancient database.

It should have been retired and replaced way-the-hell back in the 80's... or the 90's at the very latest... but they kept sinking $$$ into it long past its prime.

Bite your tongue, sir! I'll have you know, CPRS is the most sophisticated and robust GUI our government can produce!