Kushner-backed health care project gets 'devastating' review

[DonViejo]

The Pentagon report could delay the VA’s plans to install the multibillion-dollar software project begun under Obama.

By ARTHUR ALLEN 05/11/2018 04:54 PM EDT Updated 05/11/2018 07:13 PM EDT

The first stage of a multibillion-dollar military-VA digital health program championed by Jared Kushner has been riddled with problems so severe they could have led to patient deaths, according to a report obtained by POLITICO.

The April 30 report expands upon the findings of a March POLITICO story in which doctors and IT specialists expressed alarm about the software system, describing how clinicians at one of four pilot centers, Naval Station Bremerton, quit because they were terrified they might hurt patients, or even kill them.

Experts who saw the Pentagon evaluation — it lists 156 “critical” or “severe” incident reports with the potential to result in patient deaths — characterized it as “devastating.”

“Traditionally, if you have more than five [incident reports] at that high a level, the program has significant issues,” a member of the testing team told POLITICO.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/11/kushner-backed-health-care-project-gets-devastating-review-535847

[underpants]

1. Damn! There goes Jared's winning streak. +++ more because the OP is limited to 4 paragraphs

In addition, the “drop-down” selection lists in the computer program contained options from all four treatment facilities where it was rolled out. For example, users need to search through a list of every provider in the entire system to schedule a patient appointment. “Without narrowing the lists or providing a standardized structure, these lists will become unmanageable as more sites use MHS Genesis,” the report says.

The Pentagon evaluation, mostly done last fall, went so badly that the testing team stopped after visiting three of the four sites so the military could fix the problems, the report says. The fourth and largest site, at Madigan Army Medical Center near Tacoma, Wash., was to be examined later this year.

Officials from Cerner and Leidos Health on Friday's call dismissed suggestions that the project could not work on a military-wide scale. They said the implementation problems were nothing they had not encountered in major commercial IT projects, and that they were being fixed. They and defense officials said the rollout is still on track to be finished in 2022.