AN INTERVIEW WITH HOIT: Performance Statement: Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) system with the VA (Veterans Affairs)

Speaking with the 2023 HOIT Leadership Team – Reflection on a major project

QUESTION: Walk us through the role HOIT played in this project.

ANSWER:  HOIT played a crucial role in the Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) system with the VA (Veterans Affairs). HOIT provided integration services and worked closely with the VA to identify the necessary interfaces required for the deployment of EHRM at various sites.

QUESTION: Let’s get more tactical, can you elaborate what support HOIT provided?

ANSWER: To ensure smooth integration, HOIT provided support for project management functions and reporting, covering all aspects related to integration. This included project planning, schedule management, site deployment tracking, financial management, quality management, resource management, requirements management, communications management, and project change management.

QUESTION: Can you please share more about the integration activities?

ANSWER: Great question. The project involved integrating with currently deployed interfaces. HOIT supported all development, documentation including interface control documents, compliance reviews and test activities required by VA to integrate these internal and external systems as required. Integration activities included:

• Existing Vista migrations to Millennium EHR to external or internal support systems
• Community Care Clinics – including medical documentation required for provider payment if provided in electronic format.
• Medical Devices – Internal and External
• Mobile Apps / Mobile Devices – Internal and External
• CMOPs
• JRSS Architecture Implementation
• VA Data Center rebuilds, improvements, and upgrades facilities across the country.

QUESTION: When you think of key responsibilities that were important to HOIT’s role in the project, please describe those.

ANSWER: HOIT took responsibility for development and documentation tasks, including interface control documents, compliance reviews, and the necessary test activities to integrate internal and external systems as by the VA.

Integration activities encompassed a wide range of areas, such as integrating Millennium EHR with external or internal support systems, integrating with community care clinics (including medical documentation for provider payment), integrating with medical devices (both internal and external), integrating with mobile apps and devices (both internal and external), and integrating with CMOPs (Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy).

As a contractor for integration, HOIT assessed and modified the legacy systems to support integration with EHRM, working collaboratively with the VA to leverage their knowledge of the legacy systems. HOIT provided technical expertise and assistance to the VA and other contractors involved in the project to ensure successful integration with EHRM, including commercial software.

To assist with the integration efforts, the contractor created, maintained, and provided architecture / system diagrams for the EHRM and VA systems integration. These diagrams followed the DOD Architecture Framework (DoDAF) and were developed with input from the VA.

QUESTION: Were there additional duties that came up that HOIT took on?

ANSWER: Yes. In addition, HOIT supported the configuration, integration, custom development, testing, software management, training, deployment, and end-user usage of custom-developed components of EHRM by providing non-commercial and Open-Source Software (OSS) source code as needed.

Overall, HOIT played a vital role in ensuring the successful integration of the EHRM system with the VA system, collaborating closely with the VA and other stakeholders to meet the project’s requirements.

QUESTION: It would be great to close this interview with any accomplishment HOIT is particularly proud of with this major project.

ANSWER: Thank you for asking. We are very proud of our achievements with the VA project. However, before we mention those it’s important to share that it is operating as a high-performance work team with the VA team members and all the contractors involved that made this project a success.

Here a few that we are proud of:

We lead Infrastructure Project Manager for a Non-JSA team of project managers with an emphasis on SOC/NOC/hospital facility installations and agency cybersecurity policy enforcement.

The result was cost savings of personnel up to 25% due to efficiencies implemented.

We were able to provide leadership in the planning and management of operations, systems, database administration, and network operations, as well as the analysis and prediction of trends and the development of long-term strategies to ensure cost effectiveness.

The result was a deployment time reduction of up to 35% due to efficiencies implemented.

In support of the EHRM Modernization Project, we oversaw the implementation of key IT systems across all VA Medical Centers in the nation. Let’s give perspective, this was a 10 year, 16-billion-dollar upgrade project.

We helped to establish leadership in resource management, technical and cybersecurity solutions, process management, and other areas relevant to work practices, processes, and other activities, as well as working with systems, network, database, and technicians on proposed projects to assure security.

The result was a 20 – 30% decrease in issue resolution time per average incident.

We ensured that the demands on IT resources were balanced, specifically we ensured that tactical and strategic needs are properly balanced and manage strategic partnerships with important product and service suppliers.

We provided infrastructure support initiatives and solutions for enhancing service efficiency and effectiveness by evaluating the relative influence of industry trends on the demands and projects for existing and future corporate infrastructure.

We managed the HOIT team of dynamic professionals that are continuously looking for new ways to improve the capabilities of technology systems to meet business goals, as well as ensuring the infrastructure team is mitigating, monitoring, and managing infrastructure-related risks.