VA to resume new electronic health record rollout in mid-2026

Veterans Affairs officers will decide up their digital well being document overhaul effort with 4 new websites in Michigan in mid-2026, restarting the controversial program roughly three years after it was halted due to issues over affected person security.

Division leaders stated they’re assured that enhancements made to the system and to VA processes will produce a greater outcome this time, and stated the choice to maneuver forward wanted to be made now to get infrastructure in place to proceed with the work over the subsequent 12 months.

“We stated that we had been going to take the time that we would have liked to get issues proper, to get to some extent the place we had been assured that it was time to restart getting ready for deployment,” stated Dr. Neil Evans, appearing program govt director of VA’s EHRM Integration Workplace. “We spent slightly over a 12 months and a half centered on that. We’re seeing optimistic outcomes from that effort.

“Now we’re speaking about getting restarted with planning the subsequent deployments.”

The well being information overhaul venture, launched by President Donald Trump in 2017, was designed to deliver veterans’ well being information consistent with army information for the primary time.

The venture was initially scheduled to take 10 years and price $16 billion. However practically eight years later, solely six of VA’s 170-plus medical websites are utilizing the software program.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough in April 2023 introduced a full pause of the rollout after issues from investigators and lawmakers over affected person security, concerning misplaced or lacking information from energetic sufferers.

Since then, VA has been reviewing these errors and dealing with Oracle officers on system enhancements, Evans stated.

“Affected person security is at all times going to be the highest precedence of the Veterans Well being Administration,” he stated. “Earlier than we went into the reset, there have been system points that had been recognized. A few of them had been configuration adjustments, a few of them had been course of adjustments. We recognized a listing of things that wanted to be mounted that will enhance or reduce affected person security danger, and people have been accomplished.

“We nonetheless anticipate to see of us elevating issues, as a result of that’s how we discover points that we are able to handle. However general, we’ve seen previous go-lives lead to a lower in affected person questions of safety.”

In March, VA directors on the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Well being Care Heart in Illinois absolutely converted to the brand new well being information system. That web site is collectively run by the Protection Division and VA, presenting a novel alternative to coach employees from each companies on the similar time.

VA officers have described that rollout as a hit, reporting fewer issues and complaints than at earlier websites. Additionally they stated that veterans’ belief scores on the 5 amenities the place the brand new document system is in use have risen because the begin of the remainder interval.

The variety of system outages — a frequent criticism amongst employees utilizing the system — have additionally decreased dramatically in current months. Program officers stated it has been greater than 200 days because the final outage.

“We paused deployments of the EHR for greater than a 12 months and a half to take heed to veterans and clinicians, perceive the problems, and make enhancements to the system,” VA Deputy Secretary Tanya Bradsher stated. “Because of these efforts, veteran belief and system efficiency have improved throughout the board.”

Pre-deployment preparation will start on the Michigan websites within the subsequent few weeks. Whether or not the inauguration of Trump for his second time period in workplace will change that schedule is unclear.

Evans stated the restart announcement is being made now to arrange the Michigan websites for the work forward, together with creating coaching schedules for employees.

A selected launch date is predicted to be introduced earlier than the beginning of 2026.