WED, 03/18/2026
VA will restart its EHR rollout in April, scaling to 13 sites in 2026 as leadership focuses on stability, interoperability and streamlined governance.
Written Henry Kenyon
The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to resume deployment of its electronic health record modernization effort, with new facilities scheduled to go live beginning in April.
VA Deputy Secretary and acting CIO Paul Lawrence said in a March 17 statement the EHR program — launched during the first Trump administration and has since experienced a series of delays — is now back on track, with 13 sites slated for deployment in 2026. The rollout will begin with four sites in April, followed by four in June, three in August and two in October.
Lawrence credited changes championed by VA Secretary Douglas Collins that streamlined decision making, created a strategic plan for the rollout and established strict accountability measures for vendors.
Deployments Expand
The 13 new sites will build on six facilities already operating the modernized EHR system. Those sites support more than 13,000 users delivering care to roughly 188,000 veterans.
Oracle Health operates and maintains the system under service-level agreements that Lawrence said are driving improvements in performance and reliability.
According to VA data, the system has operated without outages for 27 of 31 months between June 2023 and December 2025. Oracle Health also met 100% of ticket management targets for 30 consecutive months and recorded no major incidents from March 2024 through December 2025.
Lawrence said these benchmarks reflect a more stable system, reducing disruptions and supporting uninterrupted clinical workflows.
“The bottom line is that, this time, the Federal EHR is working, stable and reliable,” he said.
Driving Interoperability
The VA aims to deliver a single, longitudinal health record that follows service members from active duty through veteran care.
By integrating data across the War Department, VA and community providers, the system is designed to reduce duplicative tests and improve care coordination. Lawrence said greater visibility into patient records will also enhance safety and clinical decision-making. Lawrence added the transition should be largely seamless for veterans, with the primary impact being improved provider efficiency and more time for patient care.
“The only thing [veterans] will notice is that their doctors and nurses have more time for meaningful conversations with them,” Lawrence said.
Ongoing Restructuring
The EHR rollout aligns with the broader effort to modernize VA operations and standardize care delivery. The department is restructuring VHA governance to streamline management and reduce fragmentation. This includes consolidating planning and oversight functions to enable more consistent clinical and business operations.
VA officials said the effort also addresses longstanding challenges with inconsistent technology adoption. The department is working to standardize systems and processes to accelerate deployment of new capabilities and improve enterprise integration.
Article link: https://govciomedia.com/va-prepares-april-relaunch-of-ehr-program/
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