Right now, in hospitals across America, a broken computer system is standing between veterans and the care they earned. And Ohio is about to find out firsthand if that’s changed.
This April, four VA medical centers in Michigan went live on a new electronic health record (EHR) system — the first VA sites to deploy it in years after Congress halted the program following a cascade of failures. This system is the digital backbone that doctors and nurses use to manage every aspect of a patient’s care, from scheduling appointments to tracking medications to flagging life-threatening conditions. Nine more VA facilities are set to follow later this year, including the Dayton VA Medical Center next month. Veterans have reason to be skeptical.
Get it right, and veterans get the seamless, modern care they deserve. Get it wrong, and the consequences can be fatal. The record is unambiguous on which outcome has been more common.
The VA has been trying to modernize this system for nearly a decade. The results have been catastrophic. A veteran battling lung cancer at a VA facility had his antibiotic treatment delayed due to a system error. He died eight days later. His story is not unique. The VA’s own Inspector General has documented multiple patient deaths and catastrophic harms linked directly to system failures. Right here in Ohio, a scheduling error in Columbus caused a veteran with serious behavioral health needs to fall through the cracks. He died 40 days later. Since the system launched, the VA has logged more than 826 major performance incidents. Fewer than one in five VA doctors, nurses, and staff say it allows them to deliver quality care.
These were not software glitches. They were failures of the most sacred commitment this nation makes to those who wore its uniform.
The original modernization contract was signed in 2018 with a $10 billion price tag. It has since spiraled toward an estimated $37 billion with no reliable updated cost projection in sight. Oracle, which acquired the original contractor Cerner in 2022, had years to right the ship and repeatedly fell short of its own promises. Deployments were paused, resumed, and paused again.
To his credit, VA Secretary Doug Collins has been direct about where responsibility lies. He has made clear that the contractor must deliver what it was contracted to deliver and that excuses will no longer suffice. That is exactly the right posture. But words must be backed by accountability, and accountability requires Congress to be fully engaged and ready to act, not after the next failure, but now.
Here is what that looks like in practice. With Michigan now live and Dayton and other Midwest sites next in line, congressional oversight committees must demand real-time, transparent reporting on system performance from day one. Not quarterly summaries reviewed months after the fact, but live accountability with teeth. If veteran safety benchmarks are not met at the Michigan sites, expansion must stop. No more blank checks. No more pausing and resuming without consequences.
The men and women who defended this country deserve a VA that functions with the same commitment they brought to their service. This is the last chance to get it right for our veterans.