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The EHR network portal for the U.S. DoD and Department of VA was shut down after the VA found errors in some patients' medical data that clinicians downloaded from the defense network.

Among the errors the VA detected through the Computerized Patient Record System's (CPRS) Remote Data View (RDV) - its graphical user interface for clinicians, was a prescription for vardenafil for a female patient. Vardenafil is used for treating male erectile dysfunction.

All access to electronic Defense Department records through the computerized record system and VistAWeb was disabled, the VA said. The agency was not sure when the system would be restored.

VistAWeb is the VA's intranet portal to EHR through CPRS, and it allows remote medical facilities access to the VA's VistA EHR system. VistA stands for Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture.

The VistAWeb is operated by the VA and is the largest and most comprehensive EHR system in existence, serving more than four million service members. Many medical IT experts consider it to be the archetype for EHR systems in the private sector, and vendors have copied its architecture in their own products.

The government has uncovered other prescription errors related to EHR systems that have been rolled out in private-sector hospitals as well. Sen. Charles E. Grassley, sent a letter in January to some of the nation's largest health care facilities asking for any information on "issues or concerns that have been raised by your health care providers" over the past two years.

Grassley said the letter was prompted by concerns brought to his attention in recent months about EHR systems that included "administrative complications, formatting and usability issues, errors and interoperability."

IT managers also have voiced concerns that new regulatory deadlines from the government aimed a spurring EHR adoption in the private sector could wind up causing problems as people rush to deploy systems so they can claim a portion of billions of dollars in federal incentive monies.

According to the VA, no patients were harmed as a result of the errors in the EHR system.

Although the agency moved to shut down down the EHR exchange, it said it first discovered the problem in February with the Defense Department's EHR system, known as the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application. That's when the erectile dysfunction prescription error occurred. 

Source : VA

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