WA Lawmaker Voices VA EHR Modernization Concerns

A lawmaker has penned a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding concerns about the VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) system after receiving several patient safety complaints from individuals at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, WA.

In the letter addressed to new VA Secretary Dennis McDonough, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash) said Mann-Grandstaff patients have reported “dangerous and unacceptable” delays in prescription filling, along with patient portal issues. Mann-Grandstaff staff members also reported EHR training shortcomings.

Following three delays since November 2019, VA launched the EHRM system at its initial location at Mann-Grandstaff in October 2020.

“I am hearing an increasing number of complaints and pleas for help coming into my Spokane and Coalville offices,” said McMorris Rodgers. “I am getting reports of veterans not receiving their prescriptions when needed or receiving the wrong prescriptions.”

McMorris Rodgers also said veteran health records are getting confused with patient records at Fairchild Air Force Base, which also utilizes the Cerner EHR platform.

“I have one report of a VA doctor ordering a veteran two medications, but he received 15 erroneous medications,” the congresswoman explained. “I have multiple reports of prescriptions being delayed, which in one case caused a veteran to suffer withdrawal. These impacts are dangerous and unacceptable.”  

Veterans and their families also reported confusion due to the new Cerner patient portal, which was supposed to run parallel to the VA patient portal, My HealtheVet.

Patients described usability issues with the Cerner patient portal because it only runs on Microsoft browsers and the “patient portal is not only unfamiliar but less functional than the old VA patient portal,” McMorris Rodgers wrote.

Furthermore, McMorris Rodgers said My HealtheVet was abruptly disabled.

A VA representative told FedScoop it launched several patient portal educational tools for confused veterans, “which included internal call scripts, a most frequently asked questions website with step-by-step instructions, multiple Veteran emails and other educational resources.”

The challenges extend to staff members at Mann-Grandstaff, who said they are not receiving quality support.

“Nurses who go to work every day to serve our veterans should not be driven to tears because software, which was intended to be an improvement, makes their jobs more difficult,” McMorris Rodgers wrote. “While the staffing surge in early 2020 to prepare for the EHR was a positive development, it now seems those staffing gains have all but evaporated.

According to FedScoop, VA said it has started to address these concerns and the agency is fully aware of the lawmaker’s letter.

 “VA was aware of the issues raised by the Congresswoman,” the VA told FedScoop. “For example, VA identified areas where Veterans in the Greater Spokane area needed additional education and communication resources to successfully use their new patient portal.”

“The combined efforts of VA and Cerner Corp. are focused on improving the new portal, making it more Veteran-friendly and easy to access,” VA continued.

The congresswoman recognized that McDonough inherited the program as the VA’s new secretary and he is still evaluating how to accomplish VA objectives.  

“I hope you will always prioritize the interests of the veterans who go to Mann-Grandstaff and other medical centers for their care,” McMorris Rodgers concluded.

McMorris Rodgers penned this letter just over a month after the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended the VA postpone future EHRM deployments until “any resulting critical and high severity test findings are appropriately addressed.”

GAO said VA made implementation progress by developing the system, completing end-user training, and resolving system test findings.  However, VA had not fixed all critical severity test findings and high severity test findings. These risks could result in system failure, significant cost increase, implementation schedule disruption, and patient safety issues, GAO said.

GAO found 17 critical severity tests and 361 high severity tests that were open since September 2020.