Assessing the value of laboratory electronic data interchange in the department of veterans affairs.

We modeled the adoption, costs and monetezied benefits of the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA's) internally developed Laboratory Electronic Data Interchange (LEDI) application from 2001-2007. LEDI provides standards-based electronic exchange of laboratory data and secure transmission of laboratory test orders and results. Once the initial development and installation costs were accounted for, LEDI likely produced value for the VA in savings of laboratory staff time for test ordering and results processing. We estimate that the VA needed to realize 20 percent of projected labor saving to recover its investment in LEDI.