The latest go-lives bring the total number of site deployments this year to 11.
The Department of Veterans Affairs completed three additional go-lives of its new electronic health record (EHR) system in Indiana this weekend, marking another step in the agency’s efforts to accelerate a modernization initiative that has faced significant delays and technical challenges.
The EHR system went live Saturday at the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, as well as VA facilities in Fort Wayne and Marion and 16 affiliated clinics across Indiana. According to VA, the latest deployments provide access to the new system for approximately 102,000 additional veterans and 6,000 staff members.
The modernization initiative is part of a broader federal effort to establish a single, interoperable EHR system across agencies, including the Department of Defense, Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The VA’s implementation has lagged behind those of its partner agencies, prompting renewed efforts to accelerate deployments.
The VA originally awarded Cerner a $10 billion contract in May 2018 to modernize its health records system. Oracle acquired Cerner in 2022 and subsequently rebranded the business as Oracle Health.
The project has faced numerous challenges, including deployment delays, rising costs, technical problems and patient safety concerns. In April 2023, the VA paused most EHR deployments to address issues affecting the rollout across its network of 164 medical facilities. At that point, the Oracle system had been deployed at only five VA medical sites.
The latest deployments bring the VA’s total number of EHR hospital go-lives in 2026 to 11. The agency plans to conduct two additional deployments later this year at facilities in Alaska and Ohio.
“VA has now deployed this modern EHR system at 11 hospitals in 2026 — nearly doubling the number of deployments seen in the previous five years,” VA Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence said.
The latest rollout follows the VA’s decision to extend its Oracle contract through additional option years, increasing the contract’s value by approximately $17 billion to nearly $27 billion. The agency said the extension was necessary because unexpected complexities had slowed deployments and caused the contract ceiling to be reached earlier than anticipated.
