Oracle Signs Contract with Accenture to Improve VA Cerner EHR Training

Oracle has signed a contract with Accenture to improve the training clinicians receive on using the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Cerner EHR platform, according to reporting from FedScoop.

Oracle-owned Cerner had determined it needed additional support from consultancy firm Accenture after identifying this as an area for program improvement.

"About three months ago, we did an assessment of the training, and we decided that this was an area that needed accelerated investment," Ken Glueck, Oracle executive vice president, told the news outlet. "We signed a contract with Accenture probably a month ago, so they are part and parcel of the training procedure for the continued rollouts when they resume in June of 2023."

The Oracle executive said the Accenture contract was within Oracle's current budget for the VA EHR modernization (EHRM) of about $10 billion over ten years.

Accenture is one of several vendors working as part of the Leidos Partnership for Defense Health group of contractors to deploy MHS GENESIS, the Pentagon's iteration of the Oracle Cerner system.

VA is implementing MHS GENESIS to replace the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VISTA) health information system. However, the EHR modernization program has drawn controversy since the agency deployed the platform at certain VA hospitals in 2020.

VA first implemented the Oracle Cerner EHR system at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington. However, system outages, cost overruns, and patient safety concerns have slowed the system's rollout across the VA's network of medical centers.

A report released in July by the VA Inspector General's office revealed that the EHR implementation at Mann-Grandstaff improperly routed over 11,000 clinical orders for veterans to an "unknown queue" without clinicians' knowledge.

In October 2022, VA announced it would delay future EHR implementations to new locations until June 2023.