The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) deployed its new electronic health record (EHR) system at medical centers in Cleveland and Anchorage on Oct. 24, completing its goal of bringing the system to 13 hospitals in 2026.
The rollout on Saturday included the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, the Alaska VA Healthcare System in Anchorage, and 16 associated standalone clinics across Ohio and Alaska, the VA said in an Oct. 26 announcement. The latest deployments cover more than 163,000 veterans and 7,800 staff.
VA said more than 780,000 veterans and 42,000 clinicians and staff nationwide now use the federal EHR system. The department plans to double the pace of deployment in 2027.
“The success we saw this year lays the groundwork for deployments in 26 hospitals in 2027, and meeting our goal of ensuring EHR is in every VA facility by 2031,” VA Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence said.
The system is intended to improve the transfer of military health records among VA and other federal partners, integrate information from private-sector providers, and improve continuity of care when veterans move between facilities. VA also said easier access to prior test results should reduce duplicative testing.
The deployments follow a prolonged effort to address problems with the system’s initial implementation. VA announced a program reset in April 2023, halting most future deployments while it worked to improve reliability, clinician and veteran experiences, and productivity at existing sites. The department continued work on a joint VA and military health facility in North Chicago, which went live in March 2024.
VA resumed deployments at four Michigan facilities in April 2026. Additional deployments followed in Ohio and Kentucky in June and Indiana in August.
In its latest announcement, VA credited the rollout’s progress to fixing problems at the six original sites, standardizing the system, consolidating decision-making under a single council accountable to senior leaders, and hiring additional deployment staff. The department said local customization had complicated earlier implementations and that its current approach emphasizes a common system across facilities.
VA has also added tools to help employees navigate the transition. In August, the department introduced VA ChatEHR to guide staff through system tasks using approved workflows, policies, and training materials. VA said the chatbot does not access veterans’ health records or support clinical decision-making.
The next deployment wave is scheduled for January 2027 at four hospitals: Clement J. Zablocki Medical Center in Milwaukee, Tomah Medical Center in Tomah, Wis., William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans’ Hospital in Madison, Wis., and Oscar G. Johnson Medical Facility in Iron Mountain, Mich., the VA said.