The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has awarded a new enterprise contract to continue using an ambient AI scribe tool from Albridge, an AI-native clinician intelligence platform, according to a September 22 release. 

According to a NextGov/FCW report, Dr. Rebecca Gladding, acting deputy chief of psychiatry at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, said, over 986,000 VA primary care appointments have used ambient scribes with vendors reporting veterans have declined the use of the technology less than 1% of the time since October 2025.

Abridge will continue providing real‑time, AI‑generated clinical notes during patient visits. The tool integrates with both legacy and new VA electronic health record (EHR) systems. VA started with pilots in October 2025 and is now expanding to system‑wide use.

According to a separate NextGov/FCW report, the deal is part of a multi‑vendor, up to $775.72 million, five‑year vehicle announced in September 2026. It covers primary care, behavioral health, rehab, and medical/surgical specialties at more than 75 VA medical centers.

Enterprise Contract Structure for AI at Scale

VA is using a multi-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for ambient scribes. 

This means multiple vendors can compete for individual task orders, so VA is not locked with a single supplier. VA can add or shift vendors as and when needed, without renegotiating the entire contract.

Data Integration and Governance in Clinical Workflows

Abridge’s tool generates notes from patient-provider conversations and pushes them directly into the EHR. It has to handle data from both legacy and new EHR systems across dozens of medical centers, according to NextGov/FCW.

That range of systems requires accurate data mapping and clear ownership of the resulting records. Because the source material is sensitive clinical conversation, consent, retention, and access controls matter. 

Also, once a generated note becomes part of a patient’s legal health record, it has to be accurate and auditable.

From Pilot to System-Wide Rollout

VA began testing ambient scribes with Abridge and Knowtex in October 2025, according to the NextGov/FCW. Early use covered primary care and a small set of specialties.

The program is now expanding to all Patient Aligned Care Teams’ primary care providers, along with additional specialties.

Multi-Vendor Contracts and Data Governance

For chief data officers (CDOs), VA’s IDIQ contract structure with multiple competing vendors keeps the department from depending on one company’s tool, pricing, and reliability for a system this large. 

That’s a governance decision as much as a procurement one, and it’s a workable model for any large organization deploying AI across many sites at once.

There’s a data-governance lesson as well. Abridge’s notes flow directly into a legally binding health record, drawn from sensitive patient conversations, across systems that weren’t all built the same way. 

Sensitive data, varied legacy systems, and a permanent record on the other end are exactly why AI governance matters here: mapping where the data comes from, setting access rules, and building in auditability as the system scales.