Jared Kushner is so totally in over his head as to be laughable, but it’s not going to be funny if he causes veterans’ deaths due to championing the cause of a digital health records software program, MHS Genesis, which has been characterized by the Pentagon as “neither operationally effective, nor operationally suitable,” and which is so problematic that it could cause patient deaths. Politico:
The first stage of a multibillion-dollar military-VA digital health program championed by Jared Kushner has been riddled with problems so severe they could have led to patient deaths, according to a report obtained by POLITICO.
The April 30 report expands upon the findings of a March POLITICO story in which doctors and IT specialists expressed alarm about the software system, describing how clinicians at one of four pilot centers, Naval Station Bremerton, quit because they were terrified they might hurt patients, or even kill them. […]
In another alarming finding, it [Pentagon report] disclosed “two indications that MHS Genesis may not be scalable,” meaning it may be impossible to build it out through the entire military health system, which encompasses 650 hospitals and clinics serving 9.6 million troops and their beneficiaries around the world.
Testers noticed that each time a new hospital went live, the earlier sites suffered software slowdowns.
Kushner apparently is shooting from the hip, with both eyes closed.
A White House spokesperson defended Kushner on Friday, saying Trump’s son-in-law — who has no experience in government contracting — had no involvement with Department off Defense’s contract with Cerner, but gave the go ahead to use the firm because of an existing relationship.
“He still believes that the decision to move the VA to Cerner was the right one,” the spokesman said, but admitted Kushner has advocated for “moving slowly, methodically and properly” with the VA contract to avoid the problems experienced by the military hospitals.
The Veterans Administration is one of the largest departments in the entire government. Trump is beyond clueless as to what the VA needs or he never would have suggested Ronny Jackson the drunk to head up the department, nor would he have his slumlord realtor son-in-law calling the shots on key internal systems like their software program. This is the kind of damage that the ascent of Trump is doing to our nation and it is staggering to think of what the cost will be at the end of the day in terms of money wasted and human suffering. It can only be hoped that the Pentagon or someone can override the idiocy coming out of the White House and provide some informed guidance to assist the Veterans Administration. The longer Trump and his minions are in power this is the sort of thing we’re going to be seeing.
