VA secretary: EHR deployments are ‘going to be done in the right way’
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins speaks during a hearing with the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs on Capitol Hill on January 28, 2026 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
VA Secretary Doug Collins told lawmakers they “have every right to be skeptical” as EHR go-lives resume in April but said the modernization project is back on track.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has rectified issues with its new electronic health record system and is all set to resume software deployments in just a few months, VA Secretary Doug Collins assured lawmakers on Wednesday, despite a host of unresolved recommendations from an agency watchdog on how to streamline the project.
VA is preparing to restart rollouts of its new Oracle Health EHR system on April 1, following an operational pause in April 2023 that froze go-lives at most of the agency’s medical facilities.
That “reset” came about after the new software — then deployed at just five of VA’s 170 medical facilities — was beset by a series of technical issues, usability challenges and patient safety concerns. VA subsequently conducted a joint rollout of the new software with the Pentagon in March 2024 at a healthcare site in North Chicago, with the department saying that that successful go-live would help inform future rollouts. The new system is meant to be interoperable with the Department of Defense’s new EHR software, which is also provided by Oracle.
VA announced in December 2024 that it was moving to end the reset period and was planning to deploy the new system at four Michigan-based medical sites in mid-2026. After being confirmed as VA secretary, Collins announced last March that the department was planning to roll out the new software at nine additional medical facilities in 2026, bringing the total to 13 go-lives this year.
During a Senate VA Committee hearing on Wednesday, Collins told lawmakers “you have every right to be skeptical” about the success of the upcoming deployments, but said “all I can tell you right now is, unlike anything in the past, I have set my eyes and focus on getting this done, because I knew it's where we needed to be.”
He said VA personnel have been working for more than a year at the planned go-live sites and that the department has consistent reports, metrics and data to guide the project moving forward.
“We put the resources and the capabilities there, and this will get done, and it's going to be done in the right way,” Collins added.
Ongoing concerns and unaddressed recommendations for remediating the modernization project, however, have continued to crop up ahead of the planned April 1 simultaneous site deployments in Michigan.
The Senate hearing came after VA’s Office of Inspector General issued a report last week on major management challenges within the department, warning that “there remain 32 OIG recommendations that are not fully implemented as VA resumes system deployments.”
But Collins said the watchdog’s recommendations “were based on a screwed up, backwards system that is not in place anymore,” referring to the modernization project’s previous management. He added that “anything in reference to the OIG report, in all fairness, is like looking at a 1945 novel.”
When Nextgov/FCW asked VA’s OIG if Collins’ assessment was accurate, VA Inspector General Cheryl Mason said in a statement that the office “is committed to providing independent oversight to improve VA programs that provide for the health and welfare of veterans.”
She added that, “as the Electronic Health Record system evolves, we remain agile and ready to provide impactful recommendations to improve its effectiveness.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., also told Collins she had worries about the impending EHR software rollouts in her state, saying that “we are concerned that we have a little bit of a perfect storm.”
She noted Collins’ move to approve nine additional go-lives in 2026 and said “we feel like in Michigan, maybe we won't get the attention, you know, that we need.”