“After a rough start to the militarywide rollout of the Defense Department’s new electronic health records system, the first wave of the revitalized effort went ‘much, much smoother,’ top officials told reporters Wednesday.”
“Officials hope that smoothness will lend itself to automation, as the team gears up to deploy to 25 more sites this summer.”
“The Defense Health Agency led deployment of the Medical Health System Genesis at four sites this fall, dubbed Wave Travis, which included Travis Air Force Base, Naval Air Station Lemoore, Presidio of Monterey in California and Mountain Home Air Force Base.”
“After a previous rollout at medical centers in the Pacific Northwest caused widespread frustration among hospital staff, officials vowed not to repeat the same mistakes. The Wave Travis deployment was preceded by major infrastructure improvements at all four sites and a new training regime was put in place.”
“’This deployment at Wave Travis was much, much smoother than we saw at IOC,’ said Air Force Maj. Gen. Lee Payne, DHA’s MHS Genesis functional champion.”
“’We found no increase in patient safety problems and no increase in harm,’” the general said…”
“Moving forward, the department has no hard plans for any schedule changes, meaning the next wave—Wave Nellis—including Nellis Air Force Base, Fort Irwin, Twentynine Palms, Edwards Air Force Base, Beale Air Force Base, Los Angeles Air Force Base and Vandenberg Air Force Base, is set for deployment in June 2020. On the current schedule, DHA expects to have MHS Genesis deployed at all military medical facilities by the end of 2023.”
“However, Tinston said that could change as the Defense Department’s system continues to integrate with the one being deployed by the Veterans Affairs Department. The VA will be rolling out the first instance of its Cerner EHR platform in March…” Read the full article here.
Source: Defense Officials Tout Smoother Electronic Health Record Rollout – By Aaron Boyd, January 8, 2020. Nextgov.
