The Veterans Affairs and Defense Departments have been criticized by a congressional watchdog for focusing on just a few of their health IT programs and neglecting all the others needed to bring their respective health services closer together.

The two departments have concentrated on the modernization of their own electronic medical records systems and deploying pilots for sharing information for the virtual lifetime electronic records (VLER) program, the Government Accountability Office said, while paying inadequate attention on jointly tackling all their other common health IT needs.

They've also put a lot of focus on developing joint IT capabilities for the James Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, Ill., the GAO said, but they still use their own medical records systems.

VA and DOD need to improve their strategic planning, shared organizational roadmap or architecture and management of where to target their IT spending, according to a GAO report.

"Without fully developing critical IT management capabilities, the two departments may miss opportunities to deploy joint solutions successfully to meet their health care needs," said Valerie Melvin, director of GAO's information management and human capital issues, in the report released Feb. 2.

Both VA and DOD said they have begun to ramp up their IT management processes. For example, VA and DOD will update their Shared Health Architecture to include the "to be" state and explain how the departments intend to transition to the next generation electronic health record, said John Gingrich, VA's chief of staff, in a letter to GAO.

Also, the VA/DOD Joint Executive Council will revise its strategic plan for fiscal 2011-13 to reflect EHR system modernization efforts that focus on common business drivers, functional requirements and information requirements. DOD is considering how to modernize its AHLTA records system and VA its VistA system.

The DOD and VA experiences in developing VLER and IT capabilities for the Lovell medical center offer important lessons that the departments can use to improve their management of these ongoing efforts, GAO said.

Specifically, the departments can improve the likelihood of successfully meeting their goal to exchange their patients' information with private providers nationwide by the end of 2012 by developing an approved plan that is consistent with effective IT project management principles.

When complete, VLER will integrate the health and benefit records of individuals from the beginning of their military service throughout the rest of their lives as veterans.

The VA VLER Enterprise Program Management Office is "currently actively collaborating with DOD and the Interagency Program Office to finalize the VLER Concept of Operations," Gingrich said.

When complete, VLER will integrate the health and benefit records of individuals from beginning of military service throughout the rest of their lives as veterans.