Senator Murray Statement on New VA OIG Reports Highlighting More Failures of Electronic Health Record System

Senator Murray: “My number one priority here is patient safety and, as the reports make plain, the EHR system is jeopardizing patient safety to the tune of hundreds of orders.”

ICYMI: Senator Murray Continues Push to Fix VA Electronic Health Record Rollout During Visit to Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane – 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 in response to two reports by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) highlighting more failures arising from the Oracle Cerner Electronic Health Record (EHR) system rollout at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane. According to the reports, 60 high-risk patient safety concerns occurred as a result of the EHR system, leading to thousands of orders for medical care getting sent to an undetectable location, rather than the intended care or service location, posing significant harm to patients. In addition, the VA OIG found that VA senior staff did not provide timely, complete, and accurate information regarding staff training of the EHR system, which greatly impeded oversight and failed to meet proficiency checks.

“The new reports released by VA OIG make clear what I’ve been saying for a long time: the Electronic Health Record system is deeply flawed and cannot move another inch until its glaring errors are resolved,” said Senator Murray. “My number one priority here is patient safety and, as the reports make plain, the EHR system is jeopardizing patient safety to the tune of hundreds of orders.”

“These reports tell a different story than VA and Oracle Cerner in that the OIG says there are still dozens of issues that have not been fixed. As I’ve said in the past, officials need to be completely transparent and cannot withhold or slow walk any information to the Inspector General’s office. So I’m going to carefully review these reports and continue to hold both VA and Oracle Cerner accountable. Our veterans and the hardworking providers on the ground, in Spokane and Walla Walla, are counting on us to get this right, so I won’t stop pressing for solutions until this is fixed.”

Senator Murray has been conducting oversight on the EHR rollout at Mann-Grandstaff VAMC for years:

• September 2018 – January 2020: 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.

• July 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.

• December 2021: 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.

• March 2022: 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.

• June 2022: Senator Murray issued a statement on VA’s decision to suspend its rollout of the Cerner EHR modernization in Washington state and other parts of the country until 2023. That same month, Senator Murray helped pass the bipartisan VA Electronic Health Record Transparency Act into law. The legislation she helped introduce will increase transparency at VA by requiring the Secretary to submit periodic reports to Congress regarding the costs, performance metrics, and outcomes for Oracle Cerner EHR system rollout.

• July 7, 2022: Senator Murray held an in-person press conference at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane outlining her efforts to deliver solutions and accountability for the deeply flawed rollout of the Oracle Cerner EHR system.

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