VA Secretary Calls EHRM Restart in Michigan a ‘Good News Story’

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) resumed deployments of its Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program earlier this month in Michigan, and VA Secretary Doug Collins told lawmakers on Thursday that the deployments are a “good news story.”

The Michigan launch marks the VA’s first deployment of the Federal EHR system in years, following a troubled rollout marked by underreported costs, deficiencies in training, and diminished employee morale.

“We had a rollout almost three weeks ago in Michigan that has been phenomenal. Even by industry standard … It is working well,” Collins said during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee to discuss the VA’s fiscal year 2027 budget request.

In fact, Collins said a tornado hit the VA facility in Ann Arbor, Mich., the week of the rollout, causing the facility to lose power temporarily. However, he said the VA “never lost a bit in a very new system. That is how well this is working right now.”

“EHRM … this has been a success,” he added. “It started badly, I’ll admit, but right now it’s going ahead.”

The VA deployed the Federal EHR system on April 11 to four sites in Michigan: the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, VA Battle Creek Medical Center, VA Detroit Healthcare System, and VA Saginaw Healthcare System.

That’s on top of the six initial sites where the VA deployed the system before pausing deployments in April 2023 alongside contractor Oracle Health – formerly Oracle Cerner – to address user concerns.

The department hired dozens of staff to support the Michigan rollout and other locations and is in the process of hiring 400 people in total.

Collins said that the Michigan sites have already served roughly 26,000 patients with the new system.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., vouched for the success of the rollout in his home state, saying, “The reports have been very positive from the folks in Michigan.”

However, Peters said he’s also “cautiously optimistic that future rollouts are going to be just as successful as what we have seen so far.” The senator voiced concern that the VA’s accelerated deployment schedule for the EHRM program may impact future sites.

Collins stressed that the VA will ensure facilities retain the staffing levels and expertise needed to continue a successful deployment. He said some of the staff hired to support the rollout will be “permanent positions” to help keep the system running smoothly.

“How I know this is working and how people are getting comfortable is that I’m having center executive directors and employees at what are supposed to be next year’s facilities, hearing from their colleagues, and they’re saying, ‘We’re ready to go now,’” Collins said.

“The four facilities that have went live, I commend them greatly,” Collins added. “They’ve overcome past failures, and not only raised the bar, they pushed the bar further.”

Under VA’s current 2026 schedule, the department plans four deployments in June at the VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Chillicothe, Ohio; Cincinnati VAMC in Cincinnati, Ohio; Cincinnati VAMC-Fort Thomas in Fort Thomas, Ky.; and Dayton VAMC in Dayton, Ohio.

Three deployments are slated for August at Fort Wayne VAMC in Fort Wayne, Ind.; Marion VAMC in Marion, Ind.; and Richard L. Roudebush VAMC in Indianapolis. VA also plans October deployments at Alaska VA Healthcare System in Anchorage and Louis Stokes Cleveland VAMC in Cleveland.

According to a budget document from the VA, the department plans to deploy the Federal EHR system to 26 additional sites in fiscal year 2027. The VA has not yet released a detailed, site-by-site deployment schedule for those deployments.

The VA’s fiscal year 2027 budget request includes $4.2 billion – an $840 million increase – to support the continued acceleration of the EHRM program.