VA accepts contractors' offer of help with scheduling

The recently enacted veterans’ health care overhaul, which increased funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs and streamlined the process for firing senior executives, also includes a provision that requires the VA to hear advice from a technology task force on problems with the scheduling system for medical appointments at VA medical centers.

The effort had been long sought by the Northern Virginia Technology Council, and backed by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who wrote to President Barack Obama in June requesting private sector pro bono input on scheduling, based on an earlier effort spurred by the NVTC to improve management of Arlington National Cemetery.

An agreement is in place for a team with participation from Booz Allen Hamilton, HP, IBM, MITRE Corporation and SAIC to begin an assessment of the scheduling system in accordance with the law. The review is due fairly quickly -- within 45 days of the law's Aug. 7 enactment, according to legislative language.

The VA is currently in the midst of a procurement for a commercial, off-the-shelf scheduling system that was announced Aug. 25. A request for proposals is expected to go out by the end of this month. In part because of the tight timeline, the pro bono team is going to focus more on business processes than on software, although the language of the statute specifically calls for proposals for scheduling improvements with an eye to using commercial, off-the-shelf software.

"The NVTC team will be assessing the processes and systems that impact patient scheduling at VA medical facilities. Our assessment will not include recommendations about specific technology products," NVTC President and CEO Bobbie Kilberg told FCW.

VA Secretary Robert McDonald can do what he likes with the advice. The law only specifies that he adopt recommendations he deems "feasible, advisable, and cost effective."