The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced Friday that it will temporarily halt 45 healthcare-related IT projects that are either over budget or behind schedule. The projects will be reviewed to determine if they merit continuation, according to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.
The radiology-related projects being temporarily halted include the National Teleradiology Program, the Radiology Outside Reporting Program, the Radiology HL-7 Interface Update, and the Radiology Standardization Project. The VA did not include any details relating to any of the projects.
Each project or program manager will be required to develop a new project plan utilizing the Program Management Accountability System (PMAS), a protocol that requires projects to establish milestones to deliver new functionality. Failure to meet set deadlines indicates a problem within the project, and under PMAS, a third missed-delivery milestone is cause for the project to be halted and replanned.
All PMAS project plans must be approved by Roger W. Baker, the VA's assistant secretary for information and technology. All ongoing IT projects at the VA will convert to the PMAS system over the next year, according to Baker.
PMAS, in conjunction with the analytical tools available through the IT Dashboard, a one-stop clearinghouse of information launched last month by the Obama administration, will ensure early identification and correction of problematic IT projects, the VA said.
On May 29, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the VA issued a highly critical report questioning the agency's ability to manage its IT capital investment portfolios. For the 2009 budgetary year, $2.2 billion was allocated for major capital investments, with an increase to $3.5 billion in BY 2010.
The report stated that while IT capital investments can provide solutions that significantly enhance the delivery of healthcare services and benefits for veterans, they can become costly, risky, and unproductive mistakes if not properly planned and managed.
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