VA sets Aug. 22 electronic health record launch for Indiana facilities

ByDental Info

Veterans using several Indiana VA facilities will face temporary limits on online scheduling, secure messaging and prescription refills as the department transitions to its Federal Electronic Health Record system.

Veterans who use several Department of Veterans Affairs facilities in Indiana will face temporary limits on online health-care services as the VA launches its Federal Electronic Health Record system on Aug. 22, 2026.

The launch is scheduled for the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center, Fort Wayne VA Medical Center, Marion VA Medical Center and associated Indiana and Northern Indiana clinics. The VA said the transition will affect online appointment scheduling, appointment cancellations, secure messaging and prescription-refill requests at the named facilities.

Online services will return on different dates

Online appointment scheduling ended at midnight Eastern Time on July 22 and is scheduled to resume Oct. 6, according to a VA notice published July 23. Veterans can continue to cancel appointments online through Aug. 11, with online cancellation service scheduled to resume Sept. 1.

Secure messaging, including requests to renew prescriptions, is scheduled to remain available through Aug. 15. The service is then expected to be unavailable from Aug. 16 through Aug. 23 and resume Aug. 24.

Online prescription-refill requests are scheduled to remain available through Aug. 18. That service is expected to be interrupted from Aug. 19 through Aug. 23 and resume Aug. 24.

The separate schedules mean veterans may be able to use some online tools while others are unavailable. The VA notice does not say that all VA digital services will be offline.

How veterans can request medications

During the disruption, veterans can request prescription refills and renewals by calling the pharmacy, mailing a refill slip or making the request during an appointment. Those alternatives are intended to provide ways to manage medications while online requests are temporarily limited.

The VA also warned that staff may have limited appointment availability during training and the transition. Some appointments may need to be rescheduled. The notice does not say that medical care generally will be canceled, and care teams remain available.

The facilities and clinics named in the notice serve communities including Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Marion, Bloomington, Brownsburg, Cold Spring Road, Lafayette, Shelbyville, Terre Haute, Wakeman, Defiance, Huntington, Jackie Walorski and Muncie. The announcement is specific to those Indiana locations; it is not a notice of a nationwide VA outage.

Part of a broader VA technology overhaul

The Indiana launch is a concrete step in the VA’s broader effort to modernize its information technology. A July 13 Government Accountability Office report said the department is modernizing technology to improve the efficiency and accuracy of disability claims.

The GAO report also said earlier reviews identified weaknesses in oversight of contracted medical examinations and in training for claims processors. That report provides accountability context for the department’s technology work, but it does not establish that those earlier findings caused the Indiana health-record transition or the scheduled online-service interruptions.

For veterans using the affected facilities, the immediate issue is the calendar: online scheduling is not expected to return until Oct. 6, while secure messaging and online refill requests are scheduled to return Aug. 24. Veterans with medication needs during the transition can use the pharmacy, mail or an appointment instead of waiting for the online tools to come back.

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