Tag: Lawmakers

VHA on track to meet 2023 staffing targets, but House lawmakers urge further hiring reforms

Lawmakers, Track, Meet, Targets, Reforms, hiring, Further, 2023, staffing, House, urge0 comment

Ongoing recruitment challenges for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health care workforce are gaining more attention — and concerns — from Congress. The Veterans Health Administration is on track to reach its year-end target increase for its total number of employees. But problems persist in VHA’s hiring and onboarding processes, lawmakers on the House Veterans Affairs Committee said. “We all know that this is a crisis situation. It was a crisis before COVID. It’s a bigger crisis now. And we have to treat it accordingly and work on this in…

Read More...

Lawmakers closing ranks on a bipartisan bill to fix VA’s troubled EHR rollout

Bill, Bipartisan, Closing, Rollout, Troubled, ranks, VA’s, Lawmakers0 comment

House and Senate lawmakers from both parties agree the Department of Veterans Affairs’ rollout of a new Electronic Health Record is falling short of expectations. Top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate VA committees introduced several EHR reform bills over the past few months. But with the VA back at the bargaining table with Oracle-Cerner, seeking a tougher contract, lawmakers are starting to close ranks on which bill has the best chance of making it through Congress. House VA Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano (D-Calif.) said he’s working…

Read More...

Does the military need a separate service for cyber? Some lawmakers think so; DoD isn’t sure

Lawmakers, need, military, Some, think, sure, Cyber, Isn't, Separate, Service0 comment

It’s been a little over three years since Congress created a dedicated military service to focus on space. Lawmakers are wondering whether it’s time to do the same thing for cyber. The Defense Department hasn’t yet taken a position on that question — officials say they’re still studying the topic of military cyber force design. But some members of Congress are getting impatient. Lawmakers have asked DoD for its recommendations on whether there ought to be a separate military services just for cyber forces more than once. In the 2020…

Read More...

House lawmakers seek VA EHR pause, ‘gravely concerned’ for patient safety

House, Lawmakers, seek, safety, concerned, pause, 'gravely, patient0 comment

System outages and patient safety concerns associated with the Department of Veterans Affairs&#8217; new electronic health record (EHR) have led to top members of the House VA Committee calling for the agency to stop future rollouts.</p> <p>VA officials told the technology modernization subcommittee Tuesday that the VA medical center in Walla Walla, Washington, experienced EHR outages Monday and Tuesday this week.</p> <p>In light of these and <a href=”https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2022/04/va-looking-into-root-cause-of-ehr-outage-that-also-hit-dod-coast-guard/”>other recent outages</a>, Cerner officials told lawmakers the company is considering a technical review of the EHR to ensure the system is stable…

Read More...