Senator Murray: “I’m glad I could convince VA to finally delay its rollout of what is clearly an inexcusably broken system in Washington state—its expansion into a larger more complex facility like VA Puget Sound Health Care System could have been catastrophic—and worse than what we’ve already seen in Spokane.”
ICYMI: Senator Murray to VA: Stop the Rollout of EHR in Washington State Until It’s Fixed – 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 the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) decision to suspend its rollout of the Cerner electronic health records (EHR) modernization in Washington state and other parts of the country until 2023. The decision comes after 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. Just this week, an article by the Spokesman-Review highlighted 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.
“I’m glad I could convince VA to finally delay its rollout of what is clearly an inexcusably broken system in Washington state—its expansion into a larger more complex facility like VA Puget Sound Health Care System could have been catastrophic—and worse than what we’ve already seen in Spokane. However, I am still very focused on holding VA and Cerner accountable in getting this right for our veterans and the dedicated VA staff in Spokane and Walla Walla—this needs to get fixed, period,” said Senator Murray.
“I plan to carefully review the official VA OIG’s report once it is released, but the reporting we’ve seen from local news reinforces many of the concerns I have repeatedly raised with VA and Cerner about patient safety,” said Senator Murray in response to reporting by the Spokesman-Review. “The consistent and recurring failures of the EHR System have been completely unacceptable—we’re talking about real safety hazards and life-threatening risk to patients. I have already spoken with senior officials at Oracle and impressed upon them the importance of making this right immediately. I have raised this issue with increasing urgency in both public and private settings with Secretary McDonough—at numerous Senate hearings and over many calls and meetings with him and other VA officials—and I won’t stop pressing for solutions and accountability until this gets fixed.”
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 committee 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 medical centers in Washington state and across the country.
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