Indiana VA facilities set for Aug. 22 electronic-records switch
Three Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers and associated clinics are scheduled to switch to the Federal Electronic Health Record on Aug. 22, a transition that will temporarily limit some online services and may reduce appointment availability.
The date appears on VA’s deployment schedule, which was updated July 28, 2026. The facilities are the Fort Wayne VA Medical Center, Marion VA Medical Center and Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis.
Which Indiana facilities are affected
The transition also includes VA clinics associated with the Indiana and Northern Indiana health care systems. VA lists clinics in Bloomington, Brownsburg, Cold Spring Road, Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Domiciliary, Indianapolis YMCA, Lafayette, Shelbyville, Terre Haute and Wakeman, along with Defiance, Fort Wayne, Hoosier, Huntington, Jackie Walorski and Muncie.
The Aug. 22 date remains scheduled, not completed. VA says the Federal EHR is intended to unify veterans’ health information and allow patients to manage care through My HealtheVet on VA.gov and the VA: Health and Benefits mobile app.
What veterans should do before Aug. 22
VA advises veterans to make needed appointments early. Facilities may have limited appointment availability in the weeks before and after the transition as staff attend training and practice with the new system.
For the Indiana facilities, VA’s current My HealtheVet guidance says online appointment scheduling was available through midnight Eastern time on July 22, 2026, and is scheduled to resume Oct. 6. Online appointment cancellation was available through midnight Eastern time on Aug. 11 and is scheduled to resume Sept. 1. Veterans with care needs should continue contacting their health care teams. If a facility cannot provide an appointment, VA says it may connect the veteran with a community provider.
Secure messaging, including messages used to request prescription renewals, is available through midnight Eastern time on Aug. 15 and is scheduled to resume Aug. 24. Online prescription-refill requests are available through midnight Eastern time on Aug. 18 and are also scheduled to resume Aug. 24.
During the interruption, veterans can request refills or renewals at an appointment, by mailing a refill slip or by calling the pharmacy at their VA health facility. VA says active prescriptions will transfer to the new system, but recommends refilling or renewing medications early to help avoid delays.
Veterans who receive prescriptions or other mail should review their contact information. Under the Federal EHR, VA says patients can keep a residential address and a mailing address, but not a temporary address with automatic start and stop dates. Veterans who relocate should update their mailing address through their VA.gov profile, the VA: Health and Benefits mobile app or directly with their facility.
What may change after the transition
Veterans can continue using My HealtheVet on VA.gov and the VA: Health and Benefits mobile app. VA has retired the My VA Health portal used by some earlier deployment sites.
After the transition, appointment letters and after-visit summaries may look different. Appointments may take longer while providers become familiar with the system, and care-team names may appear differently in online messages and scheduling tools. VA says it plans to send Indiana veterans updated care-team names through secure messaging on Aug. 24.
Why VA is expanding the rollout
VA paused additional deployments in 2023 after veterans and clinicians reported problems with the system. The department restarted deployments in 2026. Its current schedule lists five medical centers for future 2026 deployments: the three Indiana facilities scheduled for Aug. 22 and facilities in Cleveland, Ohio, and Alaska scheduled for Oct. 24.
There are signs that pre-launch testing has improved. In a July 2026 follow-up, the Government Accountability Office verified that VA had no open critical- or high-severity test findings at go-live during nine subsequent deployments. GAO said those actions reduced the risk that the system would be deployed without addressing findings that could affect performance.
That finding does not mean the broader program is resolved. In a report published in December 2025, GAO said VA had not fully implemented 16 of 18 recommendations involving cost estimates, scheduling, program management, change management, user satisfaction and operational testing. GAO also said VA had not provided the detailed cost and schedule documentation needed to assess whether the accelerated plan followed leading practices.
For Indiana veterans, the immediate checklist is to schedule care early, send nonurgent secure messages before the Aug. 15 cutoff, request prescription renewals before Aug. 15 and refills before Aug. 18, confirm contact and mailing information, and use VA.gov or the VA mobile app during the transition. Veterans should also watch for facility updates as the Aug. 22 launch approaches.
Sources
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