HP has contract cut short by Military Health System

HP Enterprise Services has lost its contract for improvements to the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) digital medical record system.

The company confirmed the cancellation in a statement to Washington Technology. "The Military Health System (MHS) AHLTA & Composite Health Care System/Critical Fixes and Support task order issued under the Alliant contract has been canceled. HP Enterprise Services remains committed to the mission of MHS and looks forward to continuing to support government customers under the Alliant contract and elsewhere," a spokeswoman said.

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DOD wants to scrap AHLTA after improvement efforts disappoint

According to the a report by NextGov,the General Services Administration canceled the contract with HP awarded in May 2010 under the Alliant procuement vehicle. The work to provide fixes and support to the Military Health Health System's AHLTA program was to run through May 2011 but was halted on Dec. 20, NextGov said on Jan. 11. Iindustry sources valued the contract at $22 million.

No reasons were given for the termination.

The Defense Department has spent more than $2 billion to upgrade its legacy electronic health record system through the AHLTA program but the effort has been only partially successful, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office.

DOD wants to scrap AHLTA and build a new Electronic Health Record system called Way Ahead, the GAO said. The department has made plans to improve and stabilize AHTLA through 2015 while it acquires the new system.

However, problems continue with AHLTA,  including users of the system reporting low speed, poor usability and unavailability of portions of the system, GAO said.