The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is set to restart deployments of the Federal Electronic Health Record (EHR) at 13 sites in fiscal year (FY) 2026, but with a different approach from previous efforts.
Rather than rolling out the system site by site, the VA plans to implement EHR deployments in waves, covering multiple locations at once, according to Dr. Neil Evans, acting program executive director of the VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office.
Speaking at GovCIO’s Health IT Summit on Sept. 23, Evans noted that staggered deployments within the same region create complications when nearby medical centers that work closely together operate on different electronic health records.
The VA frequently shares resources across sites—such as telehealth providers and services from the VA’s TeleCritical Care Program—so having different EHR systems in place adds challenges for training, technical integration, and day-to-day coordination.
By adopting a wave-based deployment model, Evans explained, the VA can launch the system across entire markets simultaneously. This approach, he said, fosters a sense of community during implementation and reduces the transitional stress caused by phased, site-by-site rollouts.
The ultimate aim, Evans emphasized, is to streamline the process and ensure the Federal EHR reaches each market on schedule.
“As we map out the schedule, each wave will bring three to six medical centers online at once, depending on their market alignment,” Evans said.
He noted that deployments are now moving at a much faster pace: “The goal is to complete the rollout across the entire enterprise by 2031, which marks a significant acceleration.”
This shift follows more than two years of the VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program being in “reset” mode. During that period, the VA and its contractor, Oracle Health—formerly Oracle Cerner—paused deployments to address user concerns and make needed adjustments.
To date, the VA has introduced the new EHR system at just six of its 164 medical centers. Beyond the 13 sites scheduled for FY 2026, the agency has not yet announced a deployment timeline for the remaining 145 locations.
