The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has selected Dr. David Massaro as its Acting Senior Medical Consultant in the Office of Functional Support to support the Office of Modernization and Integration of Electronic Health Records. He serves as clinical director representing the Veterans Health Administration and will lead functional initiatives to support VA medical staff.
Why is it important
While the rollout of the Cerner-developed EHR was initially hampered by COVID-19 delays, modernization efforts have been underway since the initial botched deployment at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington between 2020 and 2021, resulting in lost records and patients Hurt.
For VA, Massaro was selected for its commitment to EHR reliability. After serving as Director of the VHA Integrative Health Practice, Massaro served as Acting Director of the Clinical Informatics Practice in the Office of Health Informatics. During the inception of EHRM IO, he was appointed as the VHA Senior Consultant in Health Informatics and Director of Clinical Integration.
His resume includes a position as Chief Health Information Officer at the U.S. Department of Medicine. Acting member of the Executive Leadership Team for the Office of Community Care and the Office of Comprehensive Veterans Care.
Earlier in his career, Massaro was the Physician Supervisor and VA Field Clinical Supervisor, Deputy and Interim at the Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center in Saginaw, Michigan Chief Medical Officer and Director of Primary Care for the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System in Florida.
Bigger trend
A report from the Office of the Inspector General uncovered a range of EHR operational, governance and oversight issues stemming from the Spokane rollout that won the VA and now Oracle-owned technology, implementation and cost Congressional scrutiny.
Top members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee heard from VA and Oracle executives and drafted a VA EHR oversight bill requiring greater clarity and transparency in the transformation of the VA system and accountability. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law in June.
At the time, the bill’s co-sponsor, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, acknowledged that Virginia’s electronic medical records upgrade would provide “enormous” benefits — if Do it right.
represent. Mike Bost, a senior member of the Illinois House Veterans Affairs Committee, said at a July 27 hearing that an end date for the rollout of the VA EHR must be established — if not, the committee must consider ending the program.
On Aug. 4, Oracle-Cerner received a monitoring alert that the system was offline for just over four hours to restore the database, but no data corruption or loss was reported, a VA spokesperson told
FedScoop.
ON RECORD
Massaro “is committed to ensuring that during this transition, and every Veteran and Transition Services member has access to safe, timely, and high-quality care throughout the healthcare experience,” according to the VA announcement.
Andrea Fox is a senior editor at Healthcare IT News.
Email: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
