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                      VA NEWS FLASH from Larry Scott at VA Watchdog dot Org -- 07-20-2009		  


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VA SUSPENDS 45 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS

Secretary Shinseki halts projects that were behind schedule or over budget.

 

NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... It seems that VA Secretary Shinseki is making good his promise to get VA's information technology (IT) programs up to snuff.  Now if he would just to the same for the claims backlog and the waiting lists for health care.  VA's press release on this matter is here ... and, we have two articles from NextGov.com.

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VA Gets Real, Suspends 45 IT Projects

By Bob Brewin

 

The Veterans Affairs Department on Friday said it halted development of 45 information technology projects that were behind schedule or over budget, with Secretary Eric Shinseki personally making the announcement.

Shinseki, who promised to leverage technology to develop a 21st century VA during his confirmation hearing in January, said he put the brakes on the projects because "VA has a responsibility to the American people, who are investing millions of dollars in technology projects, to deliver quality results that adhere to a budget and are delivered on time."

He added, "They need to have confidence that the dollars they are spending are being effectively used to improve the lives of our Veterans."

The Housed and Senate Appropriations Committees approved a record $3.3 billion IT budget for the VA for fiscal 2010, but the Senate fenced off expenditure of roughly $1.1 billion of IT development funds until VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker completes a review of some 300 troubled IT systems.

Key projects under review by Baker include the already suspended Replacement Scheduling Application Development Program, which VA has spent $167 million on since 2001 and had budgeted at $46.5 million in fiscal 2010. VA also halted development of the Pharmacy Re-Engineering project, budgeted at $20.5 million for fiscal 2010, and a Health Data Repository for the new HealtheVet electronic health record system, which had a planned $41.5 million budget for fiscal 2010.

Baker said all the suspended projects will be run through the department's new Program Management Accountability System before they get a go-ahead. "Our goal is to increase our success rate for our systems development projects," Baker said.

The other IT projects* halted by VA until the review is completed are:

HealtheVet Middleware Services
Person Service Identity Management
Administrative Data Repository
Document & Ancillary Imaging
Clinical Data Service
VA Learning Management
Home Telehealth Development
 Occupational Health Record Keeping System
Enrollment System Redesign
Chemistry & Hematology: Automation
Clinical Flow Sheet
E-Gov: E-Training
Barcode Expansion
Delivery Service
Organization Service
Enrollment System Redesign
Home Telehealth Infrastructure Enhancements
Radiology outside Reporting
Bar Code Medication Administration Inpatient Medication Request
Blood Bank system
Prosthetics Enhancements
VIC (Veterans Identification Card) Development
Spinal Cord Injury & Disorders Outcomes
Radiology HL7 Interface Update
Ward Drug Dispensing Equipment Interface
Lab Data Sharing & Interoperability - Anatomic Pathology/Microbiology
Medical Foster Home system
Exclaims Plus
Case Management Modification
National Teleradiology Program
Compensation and Pension Record Interchange
Master Patient Index
RMS - Rights Management Server
National Teleradiology Program
Problem List Standardization
Radiology Standardization
Laboratory Data Sharing Interface Terminology Support
Clinical/Health Data Repositories Phase II
Fee Data/ Health Care Effectiveness through Resource Optimization Health Care Effectiveness through Resource Optimization

* Total projects listed do not add up to 45 due to multiple pharmacy re-engineering and health data repository projects

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OMB's dashboard site plays role in suspending 45 tech projects at VA

By Aliya Sternstein

 

Top officials with the Veterans Affairs Department, while compiling data for a recently launched White House Web site that details information technology projects, identified more than 45 failing projects that the agency subsequently suspended, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said in an interview with Nextgov on Friday.

In preparing data for the so-called IT Dashboard , a site that offers a window into the complex and costly process of procuring government IT services, VA officials discovered problems with some of the agency's IT projects. For example, while sifting through the data, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki and CIO Roger Baker learned that a scheduling project was running 17 months behind schedule, Kundra said.

Shinseki and Baker announced on Friday that they temporarily stopped development of 45 projects that are either behind schedule or over budget to determine if they should be canceled or salvaged.

"The dashboard is an impetus and is a driver for looking deep into where the problems are with these projects," Kundra said. But fixing IT problems requires "making sure we've got rock star CIOs in agencies," such as Baker, he said.

The tool represents part of a larger White House effort to hold the government accountable for contract management, Kundra added. The purpose of the site is to update the public every month on the cost, schedule and performance figures, so taxpayers can see which IT projects are on-track and which are not.

Many problems with federal IT investments date back to the 1990s, and Kundra stressed that the dashboard is a first step to reversing schedule slippages and cost overruns. "Without acting on the insight" from the dashboard, "what we end up with is the same management processes and problems," he said.

Kundra and VA leaders plan to meet regularly to audit progress on the IT projects, which are budgeted to receive about $200 million in fiscal 2009. They include a health data repository, home telehealth infrastructure enhancement and a master patient index.

The dashboard, unveiled on June 30, draws inspiration from a management style Kundra employed while serving as chief technology officer for the District of Columbia. The "stock market model" of IT management, as he described it, involved imagining projects and programs as public companies. District portfolio managers reviewed all IT investments through quarterly evaluations of cost, time and value.

Kundra now encourages Americans nationwide to suggest new projects and provide advice on managing the ongoing IT initiatives by submitting comments on the dashboard site.

By Aug. 1, agency CIOs must submit investment evaluations to the Office of Management and Budget to update the site's analytics. The dashboard is slated to exceed requirements set out in federal law by refreshing statistics monthly. "The process of launching [the dashboard] involved working closely with CIOs to get reports monthly instead of [the mandated] quarterly [cycle] . . . to make sure they were putting management process in place that made sense," Kundra said.

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TOPICS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, Eric Shinseki, information technology, IT


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Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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