***VER EL INTERROGATORIO COMPLETO DEL SENADOR MURRAY AQUÍ***
(Washington DC) - Today,during a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Committee, expressed her continued frustration about the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) flawed rollout of the Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program to VA medical centers, clinics, and other facilities—and pressed VA officials on their plans to make the situation right. During the hearing, Senator Murray underscored the various safety risks the EHRM program has posed to veterans in need of medical care, and demanded more clarity on the path forward in light of the numerous problems caused by the system.
“We are almost five years into this EHR contract. From the very start—before the original Cerner contract was even agreed to by the Trump administration—I have been raising concerns from my constituents in Spokane and Walla Walla, and I believe I have been patient and reasonable in pressing VA and Oracle Cerner to get this system to work the way it should,” dijo el senador Murray. “I have heard from providers who are burnt out trying to navigate this broken interface on top of what has already been an incredibly trying time for health care workers. I have heard directly from my constituents who have received a late cancer diagnosis because of the flaws in this system.”
“None of this is okay,” dijo el senador Murray. “And something that concerns me deeply is we have not heard a whole lot about how those voices and that on-the-ground perspective will be taken into account when we determine the future of this program.”
At Wednesday’s hearing, Senator Murray noted the challenges patients and providers have faced as a result of VA’s flawed EHRM system. During her questioning, Senator Murray asked VA officials about their plans to renew their contract with Oracle Cerner in spite of severe ongoing problems and delayed updates to the system. Senator Murray also made clear that as Chair of the Appropriations Committee and Chair of theMilitary Construction and Veterans Affairs subcommittee, she will not provide a blank check to fund a broken system with no clear plan of action to fix its flaws.
“As Chair of the Appropriations committee, Chair of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs subcommittee, and a long-time member of this committee, I take my oversight responsibility pretty darn serious,” dijo el senador Murray. “Despite how much funding has been provided, this system is by no means living up to our promise to care for our veterans—the continued patient safety risks are totally unacceptable.”
“So I want to be candid here because at the end of the day, what I care about is getting this right for our veterans, and I do not believe that more money is what is going to solve this problem,” continuó el senador Murray. “I am not sure it makes sense that we need to fully fund the budget request for this system until I can see that the system is working and not putting our veterans in harm’s way. That responsibility is on both VA and Oracle Cerner, and both entities need to step up.”
El Senador Murray ha supervisado la implementación defectuosa de EHR en Mann-Grandstaff VAMC durante años. Ella presionó al entonces secretario de VA, Wilkie, sobre el lanzamiento de EHR en septiembre de 2018 y escribió una carta en enero de 2020 al liderazgo de VA expresando su preocupación sobre los informes de problemas de personal e instalaciones en Mann-Grandstaff VAMC, y cómo esos problemas podrían afectar la implementación de EHR. Tras las acciones del Senador Murray, VA retrasó inicialmente la implementación del programa EHR en Mann-Grandstaff hasta marzo de 2020. En julio de 2021, el Senador Murray presionado El secretario McDonough sobre la seguridad del paciente a la luz de los informes de veteranos que reciben medicamentos incorrectos, la necesidad de más apoyo del personal de VA y cómo VA evitará los problemas que han surgido en Mann-Grandstaff VAMC en el futuro y en otros centros médicos de VA. Desde entonces, el senador Murray ha planteado la necesidad de resolver los problemas con cuidado en Mann-Grandstaff con el secretario McDonough y otros funcionarios de VA varias veces en reuniones privadas y audiencias públicas.
En diciembre de 2021, el Senador Murray volvió a presionar al Secretario McDonough por soluciones y transparencia durante una Audiencia del Comité de Asuntos de Veteranos del Senado. Durante la audiencia, el Senador Murray subrayó la responsabilidad del VA de abordar los problemas que los veteranos estaban viendo en el VAMC de Mann-Grandstaff y presionó al Secretario McDonough para que le garantizara que estos problemas se resolverían rápidamente y no surgirían en otros centros médicos del VA en el estado de Washington, como como Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VAMC en Walla Walla. Es importante destacar que el Senador Murray presionó al Secretario McDonough para que se tomaran medidas concretas para abordar los desafíos en Spokane y aseguró su compromiso de que VA compartiría indicadores claros de preparación antes de implementar el nuevo programa EHR en cualquier otro sitio en el estado de Washington, específicamente Walla Walla.
In March of last year, Senator Murray exigido 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 before the EHR program is deployed at any other sites in Washington state. In May, during a Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing, Senator Murray again presionado McDonough, secretario de VA, detenga la implementación del sistema de registros médicos electrónicos de Cerner en el estado de Washington hasta que se solucionen los problemas actuales del programa. El 8 de junio, Murray y el presidente del comité SVAC, Jon Tester (D-MT) instó Secretary McDonough to address and fix repeated failures of Oracle Cerner’s EHR program at VA medical centers in Washington state and across the country. In October, following Senator Murray’s push, VA announced it would delay the rollout of the Oracle Cerner EHR system at VA Puget Sound Health Care System until after June 2023.
En el omnibus appropriations bill that passed in December of 2022, Senator Murray secured critical language to ensure accountability and transparency from VA in its implementation of the Electronic Health Records Modernization. The bill requires VA to submit to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations quarterly reports detailing obligations, expenditures, and deployment implementation by facility, including any changes from the deployment plan or schedule. The bill also states that 25 percent of the funds will not be available until July 1, 2023, and are contingent upon VA providing the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations a report detailing the status of outstanding issues impacting the stability and usability of EHR.
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