VA’s two-step toward a new patient scheduling system

V endors should get ready to do the two-step for the Veterans Affairs Department.

VA will release by Nov. 21 a request for proposals for a new commercial scheduling system and integration services for that scheduling software with its VISTA health IT system.

Steph Warren, the VA chief information officer and executive in charge of Information and Technology, said Friday during a press call with reporters that the second of two solicitations is just about ready.

“We are looking for a commercially available solution. Something that is already out there and already in play and already being used to do scheduling,” Warren said. “The only development we are looking for is the connection between that product and our existing VISTA system. We are interested in any and all that can bring the solution to the table.

“It’s free and open. You don’t need to have a pre-existing relationship with the VA to compete. We are doing it as a two-step. The first step is a paper submission in terms of how you would meet what we are asking for. At the end of a 30-day period, we do an evaluation of the paper responses and we downselect to a smaller group. Those teams will be doing a demonstration of their capability to VA schedulers, so it’s not focused on headquarters, but individuals who are scheduling day-in and day-out so we can make sure the functionality that is claimed is delivered. We will have technical folks there just to make sure the connection pieces also are dealt with, but the primary focus is usability that is why we are asking for something that already exists.”

Warren said the winning vendor will provide its commercial system as well as API standards and valid interfaces to connect and share information among more than 100 modules.

Warren said in June soon after the patient scheduling scandal became public that VA would be improving the scheduling process through two contracts.

VA awarded the first contract in August to Hewlett-Packard to improve the current scheduling system.

“We already have awarded a contract to take the existing scheduling software and change the interface and make it easier to use. That is supposed to drop in the spring,” Warren said. “The team is making great progress and we are expecting the first delivery in the December time frame to go to the first site for testing. We are bringing relief, we are bringing that capability out to the schedulers to make their lives easier so they can do the scheduling right has allowed us to make sure when we do the buy and we are buying that commercial product and we are paying for somebody to build the interfaces and put out in the open source, we do it right.”

The second RFP will be for the new commercial system based on what VA found during its October 2013 contest. During that challenge, three teams showed it’s possible to meet VA’s scheduling needs with commercial products.

VA also has received input to the upcoming RFP from the Veteran Service Organizations, which received briefings on the requirements, on the contract, its structure and the process and methodology VA is planning on using. Additionally, the agency received insights from the Northern Virginia Technology Council on Oct. 30.

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