Senator Murray Presses Cerner and VA on Unacceptable Shutdown of Spokane VA

ICYMI: Senator Murray Continues Strong Oversight on EHR Rollout at Spokane VA Medical Center, Pushes for Concrete Improvements – MORE HERE

Sen. Murray: “I have pressed both Cerner and VA to get my office answers immediately…This is about patient safety and it needs to get fixed—period.”

(Spokane, WA) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) issued the following statement in response to news that work at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center “ground to a halt” on Thursday due to a troubled computer system. As of Friday morning on March 4^th, the system is back up and running again, allowing for the regular intake of patients.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable that a technical failure by Cerner has led to patients being turned away at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane. Throughout the electronic health record modernization effort, my focus has been, and continues to be, making sure any issues that keep Washington state veterans from getting the care and treatment they have earned are addressed—period. I have pressed both Cerner and VA to get my office answers immediately on what went wrong and what steps they’re taking to prevent it from happening again.

“This is about patient safety and it needs to get fixed—period. VA needs to be upfront about issues like this in real time—Congress absolutely requires transparency when it comes to failures as serious as this. I shouldn’t be hearing about this from local reporting first.

“I will continue to hold Cerner and VA accountable to the commitments they have made to me both privately and publicly to get this right. In particular, I will be closely monitoring the expansion of the new electronic health record system to Walla Walla. Just this week I met with the Walla Walla VA Medical Center Director for an update on the facility’s readiness ahead of their rollout of the new EHR scheduled for later this month.  If their ability to deliver the high-quality care our veterans deserve becomes uncertain at any point – including up until the day before launch – the rollout should be delayed.”

Senator Murray has been conducting oversight on the EHR rollout at Mann-Grandstaff VAMC for years, questioning then VA Secretary Wilkie about the EHR rollout in September of 2018 and writing 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 concerns, 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 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.

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.

The long planned restructuring of VA’s EHR system is meant to ease sharing of medical records between the Department of Defense and VA, as well as VA and community providers. It is projected to be completed by 2028.

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