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VA Announces Expansion of Virtual Lifetime Electronic
Record
Sept 9, 2011
Recent VA News Releases
WASHINGTON (Sept. 8, 2011)- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
announced today it will expand its pilot for the Virtual Lifetime
Electronic Record (VLER), which enables sharing of Veterans' health
records.
"The expansion of the VLER pilot program will allow more Veterans and
facilities to participate in this exciting new technology," said
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "I invite Veterans to
sign up for the program. It will keep health care providers informed,
improve continuity and timeliness of care, and eliminate gaps in health
care information."
VLER is a multi-faceted business and technology initiative that includes
a portfolio of health, benefits, personnel, and administrative
information sharing capabilities.
This pilot expansion is designed to share Veterans' health information
electronically, safely, and privately between VA, Department of Defense
(DoD), and selected private health care facilities that are members of
the secure Nationwide Health Information Network.
VA is on track to implement health information exchange at 11 VA medical
centers and to partner with both DoD and private health care entities by
fall 2011. This expansion will enable authorized users to access health
information and will provide seamless service to America's
Servicemembers and Veterans.
VA's goal is to have 50,000 signed authorizations from Veterans who are
VA patients to participate in the pilot by the end of the fiscal year,
Shinseki noted.
In addition to other ongoing efforts to share benefits and
administrative data, the pilot is an initial step toward a larger
capability which will become available throughout VA. VA will expand
this pilot to provide these services to Servicemembers and Veterans
nationwide.
Existing Sites
* San Diego VA Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente San
Diego, in operation since winter 2009;
* Hampton VA Medical Center in Virginia, MedVirginia
and DoD, in operation since fall 2010;
* Spokane VA Medical Center in Washington, Inland
Northwest Health Services and DoD, in operation since spring 2011;
* Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond,
Va., and MedVirginia, in operation since spring 2011;
* Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in
Indianapolis, and Indiana hospitals, in operation since summer 2011.
Expansion Sites:
* Grand Junction VA Medical Center in Colorado, and
rural Utah hospitals, first in Moab, Utah, through the Utah Health
Information Network by fall 2011;
* Asheville VA Medical Center in North Carolina and
Western North Carolina Health Network by fall 2011;
* VA Western New York Healthcare System in Buffalo,
N.Y. and Buffalo area hospitals through the HEALTHeLINK Health
Information Exchange by fall 2011;
* Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston,
S.C. and Charleston area hospitals through the South Carolina Health
Information Exchange by fall 2011;
* Minneapolis VA Health Care System and Minnesota
hospitals through the Community Health Information Collaborative Health
Information Exchange by fall 2011; and
* VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Washington and
MultiCare sites by fall 2011.
To find out more about VLER, Veterans may call the toll-free at
1-877-771-VLER (8537).
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