SAIC to triage VA health data systems

Science Applications International Corp. will provide software and engineering services to the Veterans Affairs Department under a five-year task order that could be worth more than $56 million if all options are exercised.

The award from VA's Office of Information and Technology, Office of Enterprise Development calls for SAIC to provide comprehensive software and engineering services to support the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) Health Data Systems Repositories.

The HDS Repositories Program is an enterprise-wide electronic health record system used throughout the VA medical program. VistA Repositories support the delivery of care by thousands of VA health care providers to millions of veterans at more than 150 medical centers and hundreds of outpatient clinic facilities, SAIC officials said.

"The HDS Repositories Program is a key component of the VA's next-generation healthcare information system that will enable the VA to maintain complete and accessible patient record information on the millions of veterans it serves throughout the VA healthcare system," said Robert McCord, SAIC senior vice president and business unit general manager.

The task order, awarded under the VistA Contractor Services Blanket Purchase
Agreement, has a one-year base period and four one-year options.

The work will be performed primarily in Salt Lake City, Utah.

SAIC, of San Diego, ranks No. 5 on Washington Technology's 2008 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.