The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced the commencement of early-stage planning for the deployment of the Federal Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to four facilities in Michigan—Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Detroit, and Saginaw—scheduled for mid-2026.
This initiative follows significant improvements made to the EHR system during a deployment pause initiated in April 2023. These enhancements have aimed to better serve veterans and clinicians and have led to increased veteran trust at all sites using the EHR. Improvement efforts will continue alongside the early-stage deployment planning in Michigan.
“We paused deployments of the EHR for more than a year and a half to listen to Veterans and clinicians, understand the issues, and make improvements to the system,” stated VA Deputy Secretary Tanya Bradsher. “As a result of those efforts, Veteran trust and system performance have improved across the board. Now, we’re ready to begin planning for new deployments in 2026 — while continuing to improve at all existing sites.”
Dr. Neil Evans, Acting Program Executive Director of the EHRM Integration Office, remarked: “VA is ready to begin planning for the next Federal EHR deployments in 2026, while at the same time remaining committed to the continuous improvement efforts that have been our focus for the past 18 months. We’re going to keep listening to and learning from Veterans and VA staff every step of the way.”
During what was termed as a Reset period, future deployment activities were paused so that attention could be focused on enhancing the Federal EHR at current sites. Throughout this phase, VA engaged with veterans and staff to understand issues better, updated contracts with Oracle Health for accountability, implemented numerous improvements, and established an effective process for addressing concerns promptly.
The improvements achieved include increased veteran trust in VA healthcare facilities using EHRs; notable decreases in outages that disrupt patient care; minimized interruptions for clinicians; heightened clinician and staff satisfaction; and a successful launch of EHR at North Chicago's joint facility with DOD.
Veteran outpatient trust scores have notably risen across various locations since Q1 2023. Columbus VA saw an increase from 81.4% to 93%, Walla Walla VA rose from 84% to 88%, Mann-Grandstaff VA went up from 88.5% to 92%, Roseburg increased from 79.8% to 85%, White City VA moved up from approximately 82.5% to nearly 89%, while North Chicago's score climbed slightly from 90.2% to 90.8%.
Additionally, since January 2024, there has been a significant reduction in outages with no downtime recorded over ten months out of sixteen reviewed months.
Pre-deployment activities are set to begin soon with an expected go-live date in mid-2026.
For further details on VA’s overall EHR modernization effort visit their official website.
