Alaska VA Healthcare System Transitions to Federal Electronic Health Record System

Alaska VA Healthcare Transitions to Federal Electronic Health Record After Three Decades

For thirty years, medical records for tens of thousands of Alaskan veterans lived inside a legacy software system. That changed on October 24, 2026, when the Alaska VA Healthcare System officially cut over to the Federal Electronic Health Record, replacing the aging Computerized Patient Record System known as VistA.

The old platform served its purpose well after replacing paper files stored in physical filing cabinets. Yet, VistA carried glaring limitations. Records kept at one medical facility were not available at another medical facility, and the system did not communicate with other U.S. Government systems, including the Department of War.

That isolation hit Alaska veterans especially hard. The state’s large population of seasonal “snowbirds” who split time between Alaska and the lower 48 often found their medical histories stranded. Medical personnel depended on former service members to hold onto their own health documents upon leaving Active Duty and to physically carry those records over to the VA.

Instagram

Migrating Millions of Records to the New System

Deploying the Federal Electronic Health Record across one of the most geographically demanding states in the country required a massive logistical lift. The transition touched six locations, encompassing the main medical center, four VA clinics, and a domiciliary residential treatment program. Altogether, the cutover brought 720 end users onto the new system to serve more than 27,000 veterans.

Behind the scenes, the migration involved moving more than 132,000 prescriptions and more than 15,000 appointments from the legacy CPRS/VistA system into the Federal EHR, alongside configuring more than 600 printers, barcode scanners, and medical devices. Jennifer Price, Acting Director of the Alaska VA Healthcare System, said, “CPRS/VistA served Alaska Veterans very well for three decades.”

Instagram

CPRS/VistA served Alaska Veterans very well for three decades. Imagine hunting around for paper records buried away in a filing cabinet somewhere. Acting Director

To prepare, the system relied on a specialized cadre of employees known as Super Users. Beginning in November 2025, these staff members completed Computer-Based Training modules through the Talent Management System, logging hours inside a virtual sandbox environment across 22 separate training sessions.

These trained staffers gathered for an awards ceremony on October 22, 2026, at the VA’s Colonel Mary Louise Campus in Anchorage, where Dr. Neil Evans—Program Director of the EHR Modernization Integration Office—praised their readiness.

The First Day Under the New System

When the CPRS/VistA system went offline at 7:00 a.m. Alaska Standard Time on Saturday, October 24, 2026, the Federal Electronic Health Record system went live. Raymond Gilbert checked in for a Primary Care, A1 appointment at the Colonel Mary Louise Rasmuson Campus in Anchorage starting at 8:30 a.m., thereby becoming the inaugural Veteran in Alaska to adopt the Federal EHR platform.

Ayanna Parris-Keeton, a Supervisor, Medical Support Assistant who handled Gilbert’s in-processing, said, “I had the honor of registering and in-processing the first Veteran under the new Federal EHR, and it turns out it was a whole lot easier than I expected it to be. It worked perfectly.”

For patients, the new platform promises the transfer of military health records between VA, the Department of War, and other federal partners, the integration of private-sector health information directly into VA care, and fewer duplicate tests.