***PHOTOS OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE HERE***
Senator Murray: “I am glad I was able to convince VA to delay its rollout of the EHR system from expanding any further in Washington state—not just because similar failures at even larger, more complex facilities like in Puget Sound would be really catastrophic—but because the top priority and focus right now needs to be fixing things here in Spokane—period.”
(Spokane, Washington) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, held a 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 Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. During the event, Senator Murray underscored the heavy toll the system rollout has taken on veterans and VA staff, and reaffirmed her commitment to ensuring veterans in Eastern Washington can access high-quality, timely health care. Senator Murray visited the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center to speak directly with patients and providers on the ground about their experiences.
“I have heard countless stories of veterans receiving the wrong medication in the mail, doctors not being able to see as many patients as they could, and, as we’ve all seen, near total shutdowns of the hospital, all because this system was not ready to go live,” said Senator Murray. “I appreciate that this system was designed to help veterans and increase their access to care here in Eastern Washington. But the faulty rollout of this system has resulted in serious patient safety risks—and that is not acceptable under any circumstance. We have a serious obligation to our veterans to make sure that they can get timely, high-quality medical care. For me, this is personal. My dad was a veteran and when he got sick with Multiple Sclerosis, the VA helped our family out. And that’s how it should be.”
In her remarks, Senator Murray highlighted steps she has taken to hold VA and Oracle Cerner accountable for the recurring outages and degradations happening at Mann-Grandstaff. During the press conference, Senator Murray stressed that her message to previous and current administrations regarding the rollout has stayed consistent: VA must resolve these issues.
“It doesn’t matter if this began under the Trump administration—it matters that VA fixes this broken system and fixes it as quickly as possible. I have spoken to Secretary McDonough and other senior VA officials about this many times—both in public and private—and I have also recently spoken to senior leadership at Oracle. I have made clear that it is absolutely critical that the EHR system be fixed immediately before any other patients slip through cracks because of a broken electronic record system,” continued Senator Murray. “Now, I am glad I was able to convince VA to delay its rollout of the EHR system from expanding any further in Washington state—not just because similar failures at even larger, more complex facilities like in Puget Sound would be really catastrophic—but because the top priority and focus right now needs to be fixing things here in Spokane—period.”
“I have visited and met with VA staff in every part of Washington state. The doctors and nurses and everyone else working here at Mann-Grandstaff really care about this work and their mission, but right now they’re bogged down by a faulty electronic health record system that isn’t working for them. So my job as I see it: is to fight just as hard for them as they fight for our patients—our veterans—by taking their stories, their concerns, and their perspectives directly to Secretary McDonough and anyone else who can make this right,” said Senator Murray in closing.
Following her remarks, Murray toured the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center and then met directly with veterans and providers in-person to get their perspective as she continues her oversight of VA and Oracle Cerner.
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 7 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.
Last month, Senator Murray responded to VA’s announcement of its decision to delay its rollout of the EHRM program at four of its upcoming 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. Additionally, Senator Murray helped pass the bipartisan VA Electronic Health Record Transparency Act into law. The legislation she helped introduce 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.
###
English 
Spanish