The COVID-19 pandemic caused a number of state agencies to shift priorities and resulted in impacts to facilities and resources as well as reduced availability of a number of key participants; as a result the Electronic Health Records (EHR) Interagency workgroup did not physically meet in 2020. However, the work to implement EHR systems in the participating agencies continued. The initial goal of the workgroup was to develop an integrated EHR, which may be shared as appropriate with other partner state and local agencies, and public and private health care entities. The workgroup previously evaluated the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services statement of work developed for its EHR system and the DBHDS platform for potential adaption and/or use by state agencies in order to develop an integrated statewide EHR.

Initial discussions from the early workgroup meetings resulted in allowing agencies to pursue EHRs that are appropriate to meet specific agency needs and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of pursing separate EHR systems as compared to a statewide-integrated EHR. The workgroup remains committed to ensuring that standards are developed to ensure that EHRs can be shared as appropriate with public and private partner agencies and health care entities. As a result of the Commonwealth’s success in combating the COVID-19 pandemic the EHR interagency workgroup is gearing up to reconvene in spring of 2021. The workgroup’s work plan outlines a number of areas that it will be focusing on for the upcoming year. This report will outline the current status of the EHR Implementations for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS), the Department of Health (VDH), and the Department of Corrections (VADOC) as well as summarize the path forward for the workgroup in 2021.