The Department of Veterans Affairs is in the midst of negotiating a five-year option period on its $10 billion contract with Oracle Cerner for electronic health record software. The May 16 expiration of the initial period of performance is attracting attention from lawmakers because of the array of technological, usability and governance problems affecting the VA's efforts to stand up the new electronic health record at a handful of clinical sites while also putting patients at risk... According to [Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mt.)], the VA told Congress just this week that four veterans died under VA care from causes linked to ongoing issues in the implementation of the new electronic health records system. Specifics were not mentioned in the hearing, but as noted in previous oversight reports the Oracle Cerner record has problems processing prescriptions, medication management, clinical referrals and identifying patients at risk of suicide... Neil Evans, a longtime VA physician and official who is leading the Electronic Health Record Modernization Program on an interim basis, noted in his testimony that a significant update in February has resulted in some improvements in user satisfaction. Additionally, Evans noted that Oracle Cerner has met the contractual uptime requirements over the last six months. VA users of the new system are also experiencing issues that aren't tied to the vendors. "Because not all system interruptions are the result of Cerner activity—issues with other systems that connect to the EHR can impact it—VA continues to work with our partners at DOD and the Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization office to reduce downtime within the EHR enclave and the systems connected to it," Evans said... Read the full article here.