The Department of Veterans Affairs deployed the Federal Electronic Health Record system to VA hospitals in Fort Wayne, Marion and Indianapolis on Aug. 24, along with 16 associated outpatient clinics, marking a milestone in one of the most troubled IT modernization projects in government history.
The Oracle Health-based system is designed to replace VA’s legacy Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture, known as VistA, which has been the backbone of VA healthcare for decades.
The FEHR modernization program has been plagued by schedule delays, cost overruns and patient safety concerns at previously deployed sites, according to congressional testimony and inspector general reports. The Indiana deployment will be closely watched for similar issues.
VA serves approximately 9 million enrolled veterans, and full nationwide deployment of the electronic health record system is intended to create a unified medical record accessible across all VA facilities and the Department of War’s military health system.
The program has been paused, restarted and restructured multiple times under multiple administrations. Congressional appropriators have demanded accountability on the program’s costs and timeline at several hearings, with the total projected cost rising with each assessment.
The Indiana deployment adds three major VA medical centers and their satellite clinics to the growing list of facilities running the new system. Previous deployments at sites in Washington state, Ohio and elsewhere have encountered workflow disruptions and data migration challenges.
VA officials have said lessons learned from earlier deployments have been incorporated into the Indiana rollout to reduce the risk of disruptions to veteran care.