New DOD-VA Health Records System Coming to More Facilities Soon

CORRECTION: This story and its headline has been updated to correct the original version, which erroneously reported the Defense Department had missed its own deadlines for installing health-records viewers. The program met its pilot goals.

The Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have installed a software viewer that allows clinicians to jointly access health record systems at seven VA facilities and two Defense facilities -- and this meets the definition of a “full deployment” set by the secretaries of the two departments, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.  

The two agencies combined operate a total of more than 1,300 clinics and hospitals.

The Joint Legacy Viewer combines data from VA and DOD health information systems and displays it chronologically on a single screen, eliminating the need for clinicians to access two separate applications.

Maureen Schumann, a Defense spokeswoman, said the initial deployment was a pilot program.

“We will release an update to JLV to improve its functional capability and begin the expansion of JLV to approximately 67 military treatment facilities by the end of September 2014,” she said.  “Exact details of the expansion are still being finalized with the military services.”  

An Aug. 26 White House fact sheet stated the JLV will be installed in all 152 VA hospitals by the end of September.

So far, the JLV has been installed at:

• Audie Murphy VA Medical Center and VA North Central Center, both in San Antonio, Texas
• The Palo Alto, California, VA Medical Center
• The Minneapolis VA Medical Center
• The Tampa VA Medical Center
• The Richmond, Virginia, VA Medical Center
• The Anchorage VA Outpatient Clinic and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Hospital, both in Alaska
• The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington