EHR Rollout On Track, VA Deputy Secretary Tells Congress

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ renewed deployment of its Electronic Health Record Modernization program is on track and on schedule, VA officials told Congress Wednesday.

Testifying before the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, VA Deputy Secretary and acting CIO Paul Lawrence said the rollout is on schedule and exceeding expectations.

Since deployments resumed in 2026, the department has focused on delivering the EHR to every VA medical center by 2031, Lawrence told Congress. With the latest rollouts, the EHR now supports 35,000 VA staff serving 617,000 veterans across 17 VA medical centers, 91 clinics and 165 remote service locations.

“VA keeps veterans at the center of everything we do, including EHR. Veterans and service members deserve high-quality health care, which means health care that is timely, safe, evidence-based and efficient,” he said.

Michigan Launch Success

VA’s renewed EHR effort began with a launch at four sites across Michigan, the system’s largest single-wave deployment to date. The rollout demonstrated that VA and Oracle Health “can execute complex, large-scale technology transitions without compromising care,” Lawrence said.

End-user adoption was strong from the outset. Within days, facilities were performing open-heart surgery using the new record without incident, Lawrence said. Michigan pharmacies processed 25,000 prescriptions on the first day of the rollout, while clinical teams scheduled about 3,400 appointments by day three. Several of those metrics surpassed pre-EHR launch baselines, he added.

VA and Oracle Health also addressed hundreds of legacy issues ahead of the launch, contributing to improved system stability. Lawrence said Michigan’s problem-ticket volumes were significantly lower than during previous EHR launches, reflecting better readiness, stronger training and more standardized workflows.

Rollout Gathers Momentum

Michigan set the standard for subsequent rollouts in Ohio and Indiana, Lawrence told Congress.

The June 2026 launch in southern Ohio also produced strong results. The four sites migrated more than 773,000 prescriptions and hundreds of thousands of laboratory, blood bank and consult records, with success rates above 99.5%, Lawrence said.

Immediately after the rollout, emergency and urgent care volumes exceeded pre-launch averages. Radiology turnaround times also improved, while pharmacy migration achieved a 99.66% success rate, surpassing Michigan’s benchmark.

The August launch in Indiana built on the Michigan and Ohio deployments, Lawrence said. Early feedback from Indiana clinicians and leadership has been positive and consistent with trends at the previous two launches.

With Indiana now operational, Lawrence said “VA has successfully transitioned a total of 11 sites to the federal EHR system in 2026 alone, more than in any previous year of this program.”

Setting the Stage

VA’s recent progress reflects a different approach to EHR deployment, Lawrence said. During the rollout process, he visited each of the 13 sites scheduled for deployment in 2026, meeting with staff and leadership to gauge readiness and support.

The 2026 deployments have expanded the system to more than 617,000 veterans and 35,000 VA clinicians and staff nationwide.

“These deployments mean more than 617,000 veterans and 35,000 VA clinicians and staff across the United States are using the new system and providing more connected, efficient, and patient-centered experiences for veterans,” Lawrence said.

VA is also moving away from a fragmented EHR environment with more than 130 iterations toward a single enterprise system shared with the Department of War, U.S. Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal agencies. Lawrence said the approach will enable a more consistent and standardized care experience for service members and veterans regardless of where they receive care.

With the implementation of a commercial enterprise EHR and common standards, “continuous modernization will be far easier, supporting faster innovation in support of the health and well-being of the service members and veterans we serve,” Lawrence said.

Congressional Concerns

Committee members raised concerns about the program’s cost and VA’s contract with Oracle Health. Chairman Mike Bost and Ranking Member Mark Takano questioned Lawrence about the contract extension and the program’s rising costs.

Lawrence said the additional costs were outlined in documents VA provided to Congress in 2025, which explained how the department planned to proceed once the existing contract ceiling was reached. He added that the contract modification for additional funding was consistent with the information previously provided to lawmakers.

Asked whether he was confident the additional funding would be sufficient to complete the program, Lawrence said VA has spent what Congress authorized while keeping deployments on schedule.

“I’m very confident that is the money we need,” he said.

The committee also voted unanimously to subpoena Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison and CEO Mike Sicilia to testify. Oracle had been invited to attend the hearing but backed out, citing scheduling difficulties.