The Veterans Affairs Department’s chief information officer told employees Friday he will resign, the department confirmed.
In a message to IT staff, Baker did not say when his last day will be and offered no explanation about his resignation. The DorobekINSIDER hinted that Baker may leave as soon as March 1.
Here’s some of what Baker told employees:
I would like to thank each of you for your hard work and dedication in serving our VA customers and our Nation’s Veterans. Over the last four years, VA IT has come to be recognized as a leader in federal IT. We have improved our relationships with our IT customers; established one of the highest performing product delivery organizations in the world; achieved visibility to our networks and medical devices; focused our decision-making based on metrics and not by anecdotes; and become an IT organization that is seen as an investment for the VA rather than an expense.
Most critically, VA IT has become the backbone for the transformation of the VA into a 21stCentury organization that the Secretary has envisioned. Your ability to deliver the technology necessary to support that transformation and to reliably meet our commitments to our customers is fundamental to that transformation.
Under Baker’s watch, VA instituted a program that drastically improved the number of IT projects delivered on schedule.
Baker also has a senior role in VA’s partnership with the Defense Department to integrate their electronic health record systems. That project recently came under fire from lawmakers, who criticized the departments’ decision to revise plans to create a single electronic health record system.
