Lawmakers are apprehensive in regards to the embattled rollout of the Oracle digital well being file on the Division of Veterans Affairs because the date to renew deployments at new amenities attracts nearer.
13 medical facilities are scheduled to go stay with the brand new file in 2026, together with 4 websites in Michigan in April, lawmakers and witnesses stated at a Home Committee on Veterans’ Affairs listening to Monday.
The EHR’s total rollout has been troubled thus far, affected by affected person security considerations, expertise challenges and system reliability points. In April 2023, the VA largely put new deployments of the EHR on pause in a bid to concentrate on enhancements.
Now, the VA will resume deployments in simply over 100 days. Oracle and VA officers instructed lawmakers they’ve made important progress bettering system efficiency and making ready to proceed the rollout.
Nonetheless, a report by the Authorities Accountability Workplace launched Friday discovered the VA nonetheless hasn’t totally applied a lot of the watchdog’s suggestions, together with updating the overall price estimate for the mission, bettering communication about system updates and rapidly resolving tickets.
“The clock is ticking down in Michigan for this to go stay, and the time for guarantees is over,” Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., chair of the Subcommittee on Know-how Modernization, stated throughout the listening to. “The one acceptable result’s a flawless go-live as a result of our veterans can’t settle for failure.”
Accelerated deployment schedule
EHR vendor Cerner — later acquired by expertise big Oracle — first signed the contract to switch the VA’s ageing medical information system in 2018.
However greater than seven years later, solely six medical facilities out of the VA’s 170 have deployed the EHR.
The Trump administration has moved to speed up the deployment. In 2027, 26 amenities throughout 12 states will go stay with the Oracle system, stated Seema Verma, government vp and basic supervisor of Oracle Well being and Life Sciences, on the listening to Monday.
The VA is now deploying information to medical facilities primarily based on which market they’re positioned in, with amenities working collectively and rolling out the EHR concurrently, stated Dr. Neil Evans, appearing program government director of the Digital Well being Report Modernization Integration Workplace on the VA.
That technique improves effectivity, permits the division to scale up the variety of deployments and share greatest practices, he stated.
Simultaneous go-lives might be difficult, lawmakers stated. Rolling out the file on the similar time may enhance the danger the issues are ignored, Barrett stated.
Testing throughout 4 websites on the similar time would additionally take a “great quantity” of assets, and coping with potential points throughout a number of websites is dangerous, Carol Harris, director of knowledge expertise and cybersecurity on the GAO, testified on the listening to.
Nonetheless, Oracle is assured it might deal with the rollout at a couple of web site at a time.
“It’s not like we’re turning on the system rapidly. We’ve been in these websites,” Verma stated. “We’ve got a plan for every web site, and we have now ample employees and assist for every of these websites.”
A backlog of GAO suggestions
The EHR’s system efficiency has improved, with much less downtime and interruptions for customers, VA and Oracle leaders stated on the listening to.
For instance, the EHR had no systemwide outages for 10 months in fiscal 12 months 2025, in accordance with Evans’ written testimony. And on the finish of the 12 months, the system had greater than 200 consecutive days with none outages.
However the VA has but to implement 16 out of 18 suggestions from the GAO, together with options to enhance consumer satisfaction, coaching and alter administration, and time to resolve bother tickets.
Moreover, the associated fee for the mission continues to be unclear, the GAO famous. The mission’s preliminary price ticket was $10 billion, however the newest estimate offered to lawmakers had grown to roughly $37 billion, Barrett stated. The GAO hasn’t acquired that estimate, Harris testified.
In the meantime, the associated fee estimate has modified a number of instances, elevating considerations that nobody is aware of what the underside line will probably be, stated Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Unwell.
“There are such a lot of suggestions from the GAO and the Inspector Basic in addition to Congress that can proceed to sit down unheeded,” she stated. “I’ve no confidence that the following spherical of go-lives goes to be any higher than the final.”
