HP awarded $784 million services contract by Department of Veteran Affairs.

HP (NYSE:HPQ)(Nasdaq:HPQ) has announced that it has been awarded a ten year, $784 million contract by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for Engineering Support Services and Maintenance of the VistA Health Information Systems. Under the VistA Maintenance and Expertise Center (VMEC) contract, HP Services will provide support and maintenance to the mission critical VistA systems, helping the VA deliver vital health care data across the VA's 21 networks.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) operates 170 medical centers throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. More than 4.5 million people received care in VA health care facilities in 2002 and more than 6.8 million people are enrolled in the VA healthcare system. The unprecedented growth in medical system workload has reinforced the VA's need for an adaptive environment that facilitates the seamless flow and availability of critical data across its networks.

"HP is honored to have been selected by the VA to provide mission critical support to the clinicians and IRM personnel dedicated to serving our nation's veterans," said Tom Iannotti, senior vice president and general manager, Consulting & Integration, HP Services. "The VA's teamwork, combined with HP's Adaptive Enterprise strategy, has resulted in VistA being recognized as one of the premier hospital information systems in the world."

The VA's VistA solution is implemented at all VA medical centers. VistA provides automation and record keeping for almost every clinical and administrative office and function in the VA through the many custom integrated software modules running from a single integrated database at individual medical or regional computing centers. The VA continues to demand more access, speed, manageability, scalability, and high availability from the systems on which it implements VistA.

HP has been an infrastructure, consulting and services provider to the VA since 1983 through its work on the Decentralized Hospital Computer Program (DHCP) and Enhanced Decentralized Hospital Computer Program (EDHCP) contracts. Over time, HP and the VA have collaborated closely to continually evolve the VA's IT environment and have successfully deployed HP's OpenVMS clusters on AlphaServer systems to build an adaptive environment that has increased performance, utilizes 64-bit architecture and has enhanced reliability and up-time. As part of this latest agreement, HP takes responsibility for maintenance and support for all hardware and software products that comprise the VistA solution.

"The HP team has worked closely with VA over the last 20 years as VA has grown VistA from three core applications to a single integrated system which services over 100 clinical and administrative functions," said a VA representative. "We look forward to teaming with the HP architects, engineers, and service teams as we continue to ensure VistA provides world class automation for veterans healthcare needs."

HP has also worked with the VA in other areas related to the VistA solution, using technology to improve patient care. This includes the implementation of BCMA (Bar-Code Medication Administration), MAF (Mumps Audio-Fax), automated patient information and interaction, and VistA Imaging.