DOMAIN EXPERTISE

Department of Veterans Affairs
VHA Section 508 Case Study

BayFirst is the prime contractor for Section 508 services to the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

In less than 10 years, VHA has indisputably become the world benchmark for healthcare IT systems. Both public and private healthcare systems and hospitals worldwide aspire to VHA’s use of IT for patient healthcare excellence. VHA has led the industry in bringing new innovations to patient care. Medical records are secure and immediately available throughout VHA’s huge network of hospitals and clinics. Patient records, pathology samples, clinical notes, and medication dispensing are tightly monitored by bar code identifying patients, thus making mistakes by healthcare staff almost impossible.

At the same time, VHA insists on having the most accessible IT available. Craig Luigart, VHA’s CIO, is also the co-chair of the Federal Government’s Section 508 Interagency Steering Committee. When he was the CIO for the U.S. Department of Education, he created the Federal government’s best assistive technology laboratory, which helped millions of children and students with disabilities through the Department’s funding role for schools and universities. A leader by example, Craig has inspired an agency-wide dedication to accessibility.

BayFirst’s Section 508 team is the most advanced team in the industry. We have and attract the best talent available. The team that we brought to VHA includes leaders in Section 508 from both the public and private sector. The team used the following approach:

• Recognizing that people are often the hardest part of any process, BayFirst identified and carefully interviewed almost 50 key agency staff, leveraging the knowledge and talent of people “in the trenches” about difficulties they encountered and identifying practical solution

• Developing ownership and consensus among VHA staff for a set of approaches that VHA could follow in achieving Section 508 compliance as quickly and easily as possible.

• Achieving buy-in from senior management for this set of approaches, a proof of concept for each approach, and a staggered implementation plan based on available resources and priority.

BayFirst’s work with VHA represents the flagship Section 508 program in the Federal government and continues the VHA’s tradition of IT excellence.

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