Summary
Three U.S. senators raised concerns about the Department of Veterans Affairs' plan to expand its new electronic health record system, known as EHRM, due to ongoing issues. They expressed worry that the system could negatively impact veterans' care because past deployments have faced significant problems. The VA aims to fully implement this system by 2031 to improve veteran health care access and efficiency.
Key Facts
- Three Democratic senators sent a letter to the VA on December 19 expressing concerns about the EHRM expansion.
- The senators are worried about expanding EHRM to 13 new sites by 2026 due to past rollout issues.
- Past issues with EHRM included losing access to health records, incorrect prescriptions, and patients wrongly marked as deceased.
- A 2025 report showed low user satisfaction, with only 13% feeling the system made the VA efficient and 58% saying it increased safety risks.
- The VA has a backlog of 1,800 unresolved configuration changes and some patient safety risks.
- The system was linked to a veteran's death in Ohio in 2022 due to an error in appointment scheduling.
- The VA plans to complete the EHRM project by 2031, aiming to improve health care efficiency for veterans.
