CACI to build VA’s electronic health care database

CACI International Inc. will develop an electronic health care database for the Veterans Affairs Department through a General Services Administration Schedule 70 blanket purchase agreement worth $91 million over five years.

The BPA supports the VA’s comprehensive Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record initiative, known as VLER.

The new work involves developing an across-the-board solution that will consolidate the medical records of armed forces members in an electronic database available to all VA and Defense Department facilities and providers, and any private, civilian medical offices that service members might use, a CACI announcement states.

By seamlessly integrating VA, DOD and private health care provider data, VLER will enhance the quality and continuity of care by ensuring that no veteran encounters a delay in service as a result of the transition from active duty to veteran status, according to the statement.

The objective is to provide a single, coherent, virtual lifetime electronic record using a data-centric common services approach based on national standards.

VLER will provide for health, benefits and personnel data – all within a framework of information assurance; secure, reliable and timely data; auditable access to data; protection of member privacy; member visibility into the data; and role-based access.

The company’s work with the VLER initiative will involve supporting at least 10 complementary health-related IT programs that are being brought under a single management structure.

These programs include:

• The Nationwide Health Information Network, the infrastructure and connecting services that will allow health providers and networks to share standards-based electronic health information.
  
• The Health Data Repository, a data repository of clinical information that resides on one or more independent platforms.
• The Administrative Data Repository, which was established to provide support for administrative data in multiple categories.
  
• The Clinical Health Data Repository, a joint DOD and VA effort to exchange computable outpatient pharmacy and drug allergy information for shared patients.

This new work is a health care game-changer for CACI because it gives the company increased presence and stature in the electronic health care environment, said Bill Fairl, president of CACI’s U.S. Operations division. “The government health care IT market is a key component of CACI’s future growth strategy.”

CACI International, of Arlington, Va., ranks No. 16 on Washington Technology’s 2010 Top 100 list of the largest federal government contractors.