Senator Murray: “The rollout of the EHR system has been totally unacceptable—we’re talking about real patient safety risks that have gone unresolved for entirely too long. I’m pushing VA and Oracle Cerner for solutions and accountability because our veterans deserve the best possible care we can offer.”
ICYMI: Senator Murray Statement on Delay of Electronic Health Records Rollout in Washington State, Continues Push for Solutions and Accountability – MORE HERE
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, released the following statement on President Biden’s signing of the bipartisan VA Electronic Health Record Transparency Act into law.The legislation she cosponsored will increase transparency at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) by requiring the Secretary to submit periodic reports to Congress regarding the costs, performance metrics, and outcomes for Oracle Cerner electronic health record (EHR) system rollout.
Senator Murray helped introduce the bill in December following three reports released by the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) that raised concerns surrounding the deployment of the electronic health record modernization (EHRM) program. Two of the reports raised issues with cost estimates and reporting. Earlier this month, the OIG released another report indicating that the VA has not been collecting and reporting metrics in a way that would provide an accurate picture of the EHRM program at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Spokane, Washington.
“The rollout of the EHR system has been totally unacceptable—we’re talking about real patient safety risks that have gone unresolved for entirely too long. I’m pushing VA and Oracle Cerner for solutions and accountability because our veterans deserve the best possible care we can offer. That’s why it’s good to see President Biden sign our legislation. This is a good step to ensure greater transparency and accountability to Congress, but there is a lot more work to do to make sure VA and Oracle Cerner are delivering the high-quality care our veterans deserve.”
Senator Murray has been conducting oversight on the EHR rollout at Mann-Grandstaff VAMC for years. She pressed then-VA Secretary Wilkie about the EHR rollout in September of 2018 and wrote a letter in January 2020 to VA leadership expressing her concern on reports of staffing and facility issues at Mann-Grandstaff VAMC, and how those issues could affect the EHR rollout. Following Senator Murray’s actions, VA initially delayed rollout of the EHR program at Mann-Grandstaff until March 2020. In July of 2021, Senator Murray pressed Secretary McDonough on patient safety in light of reports of veterans receiving incorrect medications, the need for more staff support from VA, and how VA will avoid the issues that have arisen at Mann-Grandstaff VAMC moving forward and at other VA medical centers. Senator Murray has since raised the need to resolve issues with care at Mann-Grandstaff with Secretary McDonough and other VA officials multiple times in private meetings and public hearings.
In December of last year, Senator Murray pressed Secretary McDonough for solutions and transparency during a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing. During the hearing, Senator Murray underscored VA’s responsibility to address the problems that veterans are seeing at Mann-Grandstaff VAMC, and pressed Secretary McDonough for assurances that these issues would be resolved quickly and would not arise at other VA medical centers in Washington state, such as Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VAMC in Walla Walla. Importantly, Senator Murray pressed Secretary McDonough for concrete steps being taken to address the challenges in Spokane and secured a commitment from him that VA would share clear indicators of readiness before deploying the new EHR program at any other sites in Washington state, specifically Walla Walla.
In March of this year, Senator Murray issued a statement demanding a pause of the Cerner Electronic Health Record system rollout in Washington state, citing patient safety risks, and demanding the concerns laid out in reports from the VA OIG – and previous reports over the last two years – be resolved first before the EHR program be deployed at any other sites in Washington state. Last month, during a Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing, Senator Murray pressed VA Secretary McDonough to halt the rollout of the Cerner Electronic Health Record System rollout in Washington state until the program’s ongoing issues are fixed. On June 8 of 2022, Murray and SVAC Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT) urged Secretary McDonough to address and fix repeated failures of Cerner’s Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program at VA facilities in Washington state and across the country.
This week, Senator Murray responded to VA’s announcement of its decision to suspend its rollout of the EHRM program at four of its sites. The announcement follows reporting on a draft report by the VA OIG which claims that almost 150 veterans have been harmed due to EHR system failures. Furthermore, the draft report found that while Cerner Corporation was aware of flaws in its EHR system, it still proceeded to move forward with its rollout and neglected to repair it or inform the VA before its launch in October 2020. This follows months of pressure by Senator Murray in response to alarming reports by the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) of serious patient safety risks due to recurring failures of the Cerner system at VA’s pilot location of Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington.
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