The Department of Veterans Affairs is moving forward with the deployment of an Oracle electronic health record after pausing the rollout for over a year. The VA announced that it will introduce the new record to four facilities in Michigan — VA Battle Creek Medical Center, VA Detroit Healthcare System, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, and VA Saginaw Healthcare System — in mid-2026.
The decision to pause new deployments was made in April 2023 to address patient safety and technical issues that arose during the initial rollout. However, the VA is now ready to kick off pre-deployment work for the Michigan facilities in the coming weeks, as stated in a Dec. 20 news release.
The EHR vendor Cerner, which was later acquired by Oracle, secured the contract to replace the VA’s legacy medical record back in 2018. Despite this, only six medical centers have implemented the new EHR due to escalating costs, technical challenges, and errors leading to patient harm.
During the pause, the VA negotiated a new contract with Oracle to enhance accountability for system performance, responsiveness to clinician needs, and interoperability with other health systems and applications. This has resulted in significant improvements, with the EHR functioning without any downtime in 10 of the last 16 months and no outages in over 200 days as of early December.
VA officials have emphasized their commitment to the modernization project and are optimistic about resuming the rollout soon. While the deployment at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago was successful, lawmakers have expressed concerns about the resources and staffing required for future facilities.
In conclusion, the VA’s decision to resume deployments of the Oracle EHR marks a significant step forward in the modernization of its healthcare system. With a renewed focus on system improvements and accountability, the agency is poised to deliver better care to veterans across the country.
