The State Paid Nearly $28 Million for a Flawed System That Fails to Meet the Needs of Its Veterans Homes

Will be interesting to see if this audit triggers a review of the impact on services to our state’s veterans similar to the debacle at the federal Veterans Administration. It should, considering this impact affects lives.

Highlights:

Our audit concerning the development and implementation of the California Department of Veterans Affairs’ (CalVet) Enterprise-Wide Veterans Home Information System (system) revealed the following:

• The system has not improved the efficiency of the homes’ process for documenting medical care nor has it reduced reliance on paper because of system flaws.
• System instability and concerns about functionality resulted in CalVet implementing fewer system functions at some homes, thereby limiting CalVet’s ability to provide more efficient care for veterans.
• CalVet’s project management failed to promptly recognize the severity of the system’s problems and address them.
• The California Department of Technology (Technology Department) lacked documentation to demonstrate that its efforts to ensure that the settlement with the system contractor was in the State’s best interest.
• CalVet did not exercise adequate oversight of its system project.
  • It did not complete or partially completed six of the 12 required management oversight plans to ensure effective project management.
  • It hired one contractor to provide both independent project oversight and independent verification and validation services, and those services were inadequate.
• The Technology Department did not adequately fulfill its oversight responsibilities for CalVet’s system project.
  • It did not identify significant concerns until August 2012, after Cal Vet had already spent $15 million on the system.
• CalVet’s limited documentation for the selection of the system contractor prevents it from demonstrating it complied with state contracting requirements.
  • It could not provide proposals for six of the seven vendors or the evaluations for three proposals, including the winning proposal.
• CalVet approved payments totaling $733,000 for some of its key system implementation deliverables but could not provide adequate documentation of receiving these final deliverables.

See full report here.