 EHRM Communications -- On June 6, we successfully deployed the Federal Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to four medical centers in the southern Ohio region – Chillicothe, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Cincinnati-Fort Thomas. With this launch, more than 107,000 Veterans and 7,200 VA clinicians and staff will benefit from:
- The seamless, hassle-free transfer of military health records among VA, Department of War, and other federal partners.
- The integration of health information from private sector facilities into VA's care for Veterans.
- Medical appointments where VA doctors and nurses spend more time with patients and less time struggling with outdated technology.
- Less time undergoing duplicative tests because prior test results can’t be found.
- An increased ability of VA facilities to share best medical practices with one another.
- Improved continuity of care when Veterans transfer among facilities or need emergency care at facilities they’ve never visited.
These deployments built on the success of VA’s first market-wide deployments in Michigan in April, which brought the system to over 200,000 Veterans and over 10,000 new users —nearly doubling VA’s user base. It was also the first time VA’s standard baseline of products, workflows and integrations was implemented across an entire market. Since go-live, feedback from clinical users and local leadership in Michigan has been positive and many operational metrics are trending back or have exceeded pre-go-live levels.
Additionally, teams across the Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program, Veterans Health Administration (VHA), and the Michigan sites identified key lessons learned and worked to make improvements prior to the southern Ohio go-lives.
Most important, the southern Ohio facilities embraced the modernization effort and were well prepared to successfully deploy the system.
Over the summer, we’ll deploy the system at sites in Indiana, and we’ll reach Cleveland, Ohio, and Anchorage, Alaska, this fall. You can read more about our plans here.
I’m proud of how our teams continue to work together to make this critical modernization happen. From clinicians and staff at our facilities and VISN leadership embracing the challenge and taking ownership, to our EHRM and VHA teams supporting the sites and continually working to improve the system and our processes, to our now 14 live sites that continue to provide lessons learned and support their colleagues at sites in deployment —everyone is working toward the goal of delivering the best care to Veterans.
Thank you, and I’m looking forward to seeing this positive momentum continue.
 Dayton Daily News -- The critics will shout about your failures and whisper your successes, and this is especially true of the media.
That’s why I’d like all Veterans in the region to know that the Department of Veterans Affairs successfully deployed a modern electronic health record system at VA facilities in Dayton, Cincinnati, Chillicothe and Fort Thomas, Kentucky.
This is just the latest accomplishment for Veterans we’ve delivered under President Donald Trump. VA inherited an EHR program that was all but abandoned by the Biden Administration. The prior administration called it quits on the effort to deliver a system that would make it easier to transfer military and private care records to VA, which means less hassle for Veterans seeking care.
It gave up on the idea of a system that allows doctors and nurses to spend more time with patients and less time organizing paper records. And it stopped working to improve continuity of care for Veterans when they transfer between medical facilities.
Under Trump and Secretary Doug Collins, VA picked up this critical project once again and fixed the problems that prior officials walked away from. That means fixing the bugs that plagued the last administration and making sure EHR functions efficiently and safely for all VA patients. We hit our targets — over the past 18 months, the new EHR has been incident-free for 96.68% of the time, which exceeds the contractual requirements we established, and we’ve seen nothing but positive trends as we measure employee user experience and system performance.
Even with these initial successes there are still some who would rather recycle tired attacks. A recent op-ed by Garrett Exner, who serves as a board member of Veterans on Duty, in this paper, for example, rehashed old storylines about the failures of the prior administration and laid those problems at our feet.
But no one takes those feeble complaints seriously once they see how effective we’ve been at turning this project around.
In the last two months, we have started rolling out this critical system to VA facilities once again after a delay of nearly two years. We’re 2-0 in 2026 — we deployed EHR to four sites in Michigan in April, the largest simultaneous deployment so far. Here’s another story you probably didn’t read in the press — the Michigan deployment went so smoothly we started getting questions from other VA medical systems about when they’ll get this upgrade.
Veterans in Ohio didn’t have to wait. Just last week, we deployed in four more locations, which means more than 300,000 Veterans in the region will benefit from a state-of-the-art system of medical recordkeeping. All the Veterans’ information in a single place. A system that lets health care providers focus on patients instead of paperwork. There are dramatically lower odds that Veterans will be forced to undergo duplicative medical testing because medical records couldn’t be found.
The more we roll out this upgrade, the more Veterans will benefit from an integrated system that lets VA facilities talk to each other. When one VA facility finds a new way to work efficiently with Veterans, or finds a more effective treatment, that innovation doesn’t stay in that one facility. The lessons learned by one facility can be more easily shared throughout VA through this upgraded record system.
The last few weeks have shown the media doesn’t know what to make of a good news story anymore. Here’s the truth the press can’t bring itself to publish: Trump’s VA got it right. We fixed the dormant EHR program, are rolling it out successfully, and are giving Veterans access to a modern health record system that was long overdue, one city at a time.
And sometimes, four cities at a time.
The Dayton Air Show was this past weekend. Before taking to the sky, nine members of the Air Force F-22 Demonstration Team spent time with Veterans at our Community Living Center (CLC). They chatted with Veterans, including 107-year-old Veteran John Dorsey, and with staff. The crew went from room to room and thanked Veterans for their service. They also gave Veterans team patches and coins which the Veterans loved.
Dozens of Veterans enjoyed a hearty meal, and bingo on Friday. Blue Stars Mothers Miami Valley Chapter 3 put on the luncheon for Veterans in the domiciliary. The group comes to Dayton VA often to show support and to let Veterans know they are appreciated. The mothers teamed up with channel 2 for the event. Workers at the TV station served the meal to Veterans as part of the station’s volunteer service day. The Veterans each got a flag pin and a bag of goodies.
Snacks, blankets, backpacks, hygiene products and playing cards are some of the things given to Veterans currently in our domiciliary. The District 2 American Legion Auxiliary prepared the items for 74 Veterans. They've put on this event for more than 20 years and Veterans appreciate it. The auxiliary president said the organization's goal is "to serve the Veterans who served us."
 Linda Bray was in college when she learned a friend was going into the military via the Reserve Officer Training Corps. Intrigued, Bray joined the program as well.
***Click here to read more: https://vaww.insider.va.gov/freedom-250-army-veteran-linda-bray/.
Thursday, July 2nd is our Buddy Enrollment Drive. If you know a Veteran not enrolled in VA health care, bring them to this event at Dayton VA. Help us out as we work to sign up 250 Veterans in honor of Freedom 250.
 Now that we've launched the new Electronic Health Record (EHR), a few things may be different for Veterans:
*Appointment summaries and other printed materials will look more modern.
*Care team names in secure messages may look different than before; we’re working to make team names clearer and easier for you to recognize.
*Prescription numbers on medication bottles or prescription packages that you have from before the transition will be different than they are in the online system. Once you get a new refill, the prescription numbers will match up.
*You’ll see trainers around the facility helping our staff learn the new system.
*You’ll notice new technology around the facility.
*Your appointments may take a little longer as staff are getting used to the new system.
We appreciate your patience.
Summer means our farmers market is back! The first one of the year will be Thursday, June 25th and will occur every Thursday through October 15th. It will be from 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. at the picnic pavilion. It’s open to the public so make sure to tell Veterans, family and friends!
A free monthly fitness program at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
See flyer below for more details.
Miami County Veterans Museum invite you to come out June 20th from 9 am-11 am . See flyer for more details.
Invitation to all Veterans, active service members, military families, and entire community to come together for a free live music and shared appreciation July 3rd.
See flyer below for more details.
The Women Overcoming & Winning (W.O.W.) social group meets the first Monday of each month. The next meeting will be, July 6th, from 6:00-7:30pm in building 305. Women Veterans are encouraged to attend.
The next Coffee Club meeting will be on Tuesday, July 14th. Dayton VA Medical Center Outreach Team will be in attendance. See information below.
 Spending time on your devices can quickly add up. But small changes can create space for what matters most. Turn screen time into “me time” with simple, screen-free activities. Try one of these:
- Pray, practice meditation or deep breathing
- Stretch or move your body
- Journal or reflect
- Connect with someone in person
Less “scroll time” and more “soul time” empowers us to be more mindful about our Whole Health. Which activity will you try?
*** Click here for more information: https://www.va.gov/WHOLEHEALTH/cih/meditation.asp
 Dayton VA Veterans, staff and retirees have free access to more than 100 live, online Ompractice classes weekly, an on-demand video library & new programming every month.
**Click here for video library: https://app.ompractice.com/videos
Register with Ompractice for free: https://app.ompractice.com/Veteransaffairs
Veterans, if you can't make your appointment, call and cancel so another Veteran can take it.
The Coffee Hour and 12 Step Meetings are offered by Mental Health to all Veterans in recovery, even if not engaged with Mental Health.
Open to active duty, Veterans, National Guard, Reservist and widowed families Thursdays 10am - 2pm and Mondays 6pm - 8pm.
See details below.
 As summer approaches, remember these final cooking temperatures for safe grilling:
- Burgers = 165°F
- Hot Dogs = 165°F
- Chicken = 165°F
- Fish = 145°F
- Steaks = 145°F
The Dayton VAMC now has a Medical Legal Partnership (MLP) with Legal Aid of Western Ohio (LAWO). They will be offering civil legal services for all Veterans that qualify. They will be on site every Tuesday and Thursday from 9am to 2pm in Building 409, first floor, Homeless Program. Walk-ins are welcome or they can reach out directly to LAWO by phone at (888) 534-1432 or online at www.legalaidline.org.
To make it easier to contact our scheduling line directly, we developed direct extensions for each specialty. If you need to schedule or re-schedule your appointment, please contact (937) 268- | | 
