The Department of Veterans Affairs' use of health IT and other quality initiatives could provide lessons for the overall U.S. health care system, according to a recent Congressional Budget Office report, Government Health IT reports.
VA's VistA health information system includes:
- Computerized physician order entry;
- Electronic health records;
- Lab tests results;
- Medical imaging;
- Medical staffing management; and
- Pharmaceutical management.
"VistA plays a key role in the agency's efforts to measure its performance and improve its quality," Allison Percy of CBO's national security division, and the report's author, said.
The CBO report also noted that VA has made data sharing progress with the Department of Defense in moving toward a single EHR.
The report recommended that VA share the lessons it learned from VistA with the rest of the health care industry (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 8/17).