VA Makes It Easier for Veterans To Access Electronic Medical Records

The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced its updated plan to move forward with its systemwide Electronic Health Record Modernization program.

The plan will mitigate challenges documented in the Comprehensive Lessons Learned report submitted to Congress after this year’s strategic review of the EHRM program.

“We will do everything we can to get electronic health records right for Veterans and our health care staff, with patient safety being the key driver and nonnegotiable,” said VA Deputy Secretary Donald M. Remy. 

“I have incorporated the lessons learned I received during my recent meetings with our team at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, into this new way forward, "Remy continued. "Under my direction, VA is refining EHR governance and management structures to establish additional rigor and oversight. VA, in coordination with our partners, the Department of Defense and EHR vendor Cerner, will continue to update and refine the EHR implementation process to ensure it delivers the excellence Veterans expect and deserve from VA.”

VA has developed a revised schedule for how it will roll out the EHR system across the department to early fiscal year 2024. VA leveraged lessons learned at our initial operating capability sites and incorporated feedback from facility end users, Veterans Integrated Support Network leadership, and Veterans Health Administration program offices. Pre-deployment activities are underway in VISNs 10 and 20 while preparing for future fiscal year site deployments in VISNs 12 and 23. VISN 12 includes the joint VA-DOD site in North Chicago, where coordination activities have begun. 

Future deployments, adjustments, and/or modifications to the schedule will be made based on any additional clinical and technical findings and will continuously consider the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.