The votes are in for the 2025 FedScoop.
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The Veterans Affairs Department provided clinical staff with generative artificial intelligence chat tools without the proper oversight or safeguards while following the administration’s push to reduce oversight, the VA’s Office of the Inspector General revealed in a Thursday report.
Despite active use of the AI tools in the Veterans Health Administration, the lack of proper governance created “risks for patient safety” and limited ability to monitor errors, the OIG found in a study conducted October 2025 to February 2026.
The VA uses VA GPT and Copilot Chat, and is piloting Ambient AI Scribe to draft clinical notes, which seems to have more governance in place, the report said.
“The OIG is concerned about VHA’s ability to promote and safeguard patient safety when these chat tools are used in clinical work without the same protocols implemented for Ambient AI Scribe—such as a feedback loop and a means to detect patterns, which could improve clinical use and prevent future patient safety events,” the report said.
The OIG also found that VA’s efforts to reduce “unnecessary levels of bureaucratic oversight” — consistent with the Office of Management and Budget’s 2025 AI memorandum — may have introduced more vulnerabilities.
“VA leaders’ emphasis on reducing barriers to innovation influenced oversight decisions,” the report said. “The OIG is concerned this viewpoint does not acknowledge the high-impact use of AI chat tools by VA staff, resulting in insufficient risk management practices as prescribed by the same memo for ‘anticipated risks from [AI’s] use.’”
Interviews with VA AI leaders found they prioritized rapid access to AI chat tools over “safeguards deemed impractical,” the report said.
VA AI leaders had also not effectively coordinated with VHA’s National Center for Patient Safety, and they likened generative AI to a search engine, which the OIG found “flawed” since generative AI synthesizes information, the report said.
In addition, VA does not have processes or infrastructure to ensure AI patient safety communication and monitoring, including ways to identify records created with AI to retroactively find safety concerns, the report said.
The OIG recommended the VA address generative AI chat tool governance, evaluate AI chat tools as high impact, require safeguards and integrate monitoring of AI-related risks into existing patient safety programs.
In response to the draft report, the VA concurred with the recommendations, took steps to increase communication with AI governance bodies, health agencies and reporting systems and provided action plans to develop clinical AI governance and education.
“VHA greatly values the OIG’s assistance in ensuring that all stakeholders are unified in supporting VHA’s vision of providing all Veterans with access to the highest quality care,” said VA Under Secretary for Health John J. Bartrum. “Your collaboration is instrumental in helping us achieve our commitment to excellence in health care services for Veterans.”
