Nationwide Outage of Oracle’s Federal Electronic Health Record: What You Need to Know

Oracle’s Federal Electronic Health Record (EHR) system faced a nationwide outage on Tuesday, affecting many users across various agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Coast Guard. The outage disrupted six VA medical centers and 26 community clinics.

The VA confirmed that all impacted facilities used standard procedures to continue care for veterans during this downtime. These EHRs are essential for managing patient histories and play a critical role in the health system. When issues arise, they can lead to serious challenges in patient care.

Oracle, which acquired the EHR company Cerner for $28 billion in 2022, reported that the issues began around 8:37 a.m. Eastern, with users experiencing system freezes and loss of access to applications. Services were restored later that day at 2:05 p.m. after Oracle restarted the system.

The company is looking into the cause of this outage but hasn’t shared further details yet. This incident adds to the challenges Oracle has faced with the VA’s EHR implementation, which has been riddled with concerns over patient safety. The VA had previously paused the deployment of this software in 2023 and initiated a strategic review of Cerner in 2021.

Looking ahead, four VA facilities in Michigan are set to start using Oracle’s Federal EHR in 2026. Additionally, Oracle recently introduced a new EHR system featuring advanced cloud and AI capabilities. An early adopter program is planned for this year, although it remains unclear if the VA will engage with this new version.

Oracle is expected to report its third-quarter earnings for fiscal 2025 on Monday, which may shed more light on their ongoing challenges and future plans.