VA plans to restart EHR rollouts in mid-2026, despite viability concerns

VA announced on Friday that it is “beginning early-stage planning” to implement the new EHR system at four of its Michigan-based medical facilities in mid-2026, a move that would officially take the department out of its current freeze on most new deployments of the software.

“VA will kick off pre-deployment activities in the coming weeks,” the department said in a press release. 

Since the new EHR system was first rolled out in 2020 at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, VA’s modernization effort has been beset by technical challenges, cost overruns, patient safety issues and usability concerns. The new software is meant to be interoperable with the Department of Defense’s modernized EHR system that is also from Oracle Cerner.

VA ultimately paused deployments of the EHR system in April 2023 to address the host of problems affecting the facilities where the new software had been deployed. At the time, the system had only been deployed at five of VA’s 170-plus medical facilities. DOD and VA subsequently worked to implement the joint system at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, Illinois, in March. 

Although VA said it is looking to restart rollouts of the new system in 2026, Friday’s announcement already marks a departure from the tentative deployment timeline that it shared with Congress. VA Secretary Denis McDonough previously told lawmakers that the department planned to resume implementing the Oracle Cerner EHR system at new medical facilities before the end of fiscal year 2025.

VA said, however, that it has made significant improvements to the new software and is working to incorporate feedback from veterans and clinicians into its modernization effort.

“VA is ready to begin planning for the next federal EHR deployments in 2026, while at the same time remaining committed to the continuous improvement efforts that have been our focus for the past 18 months,” Acting Program Executive Director of the EHRM Integration Office Dr. Neil Evans said in a statement. “We’re going to keep listening to and learning from veterans and VA staff every step of the way.”

The department said the ongoing “reset period” has enabled it to address system outages at the facilities using the new EHR, as well as enhance trust and satisfaction with the software among veterans and clinicians. 

“Clinician and staff satisfaction with the Federal EHR has increased each year since 2022 — including increases in agreement in employee surveys with the phrases ‘the EHR is available when I need it’ and ‘this EHR enables me to deliver high-quality care,’” the department said. 

VA also used the reset to renegotiate its contract with Oracle Cerner earlier this year to prioritize more oversight and system improvements at the medical facilities using the new system. 

Lawmakers still concerned about VA moving out of reset phase

Although VA has pointed to the rollout of the EHR system at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center earlier this year as a sign of the success of its reset, lawmakers have continued to show unease about the department restarting software deployments. 

During a House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization hearing in July, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla. — the panel’s ranking member — told VA officials “I think we are far from ready to endorse further go-live activities,” noting that the Lovell rollout was the sole focus of both DOD and VA and required a surge of resources to make it successful.

At the time, a staffer on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee told Nextgov/FCW that VA was considering deploying the new software at four medical centers in FY25.

During a subsequent House Veterans’ Affairs Committee oversight hearing in September, Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C. — a practicing physician — said the Oracle Cerner EHR “is not a system that is meant for the VA medical system” and that it “should be abandoned today.”

Despite bipartisan concerns about VA’s efforts to improve its modernization program, some legislative proposals designed to enhance oversight of the EHR deployment have been bogged down by political infighting. 

A package of veterans’ legislation — known as the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act — initially included an entire section of provisions aimed at improving VA’s rollout of the EHR system when it was introduced in May. 

Although the legislation subsequently passed both the House and Senate, a spokesperson for the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee told Nextgov/FCW that the EHR section was ultimately removed from the package during bipartisan negotiations “due to a lack of political viability in both the House and Senate.”

Congressional Republicans, in particular, have voiced more openness to terminating the current EHR modernization initiative as a result of significant cost overruns and safety concerns. 

The EHR project was initially slated to take 10 years and cost $16 million, although the Institute for Defense Analyses has estimated that it would cost more than $37 billion for VA to fully deploy the new software at all of its medical facilities. 

The future of the modernization initiative also remains unclear, as the incoming Trump administration has already placed a strong emphasis on cutting perceived government waste. 

President-elect Donald Trump has announced the creation of an advisory body — called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and led by billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy — that will recommend federal cost saving steps.