“Leaders charged with leading one of the largest electronic health record (EHR) programs in federal government explain how they are bolstering collaboration and implementing continuous improvement to ensure successful implementation of a single, common patient record…”
“Bill Tinston, director of the Federal EHR Modernization (FEHRM) Office, said the agency focuses on two primary objectives: convergence and operationalization for a single, common EHR. The office is working to implement the technology across the Defense Department, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Coast Guard. Built as a collaborative effort, FEHRM analyzes the functional and change requirements of the system and provides a single perspective on baseline capabilities to ensure health care systems and patient data are interoperable across agencies.”
“’I want to make sure that when a decision is made, that it is supportable from an IT perspective, that we are always able to support the decisions that are made on how to have the systems work together better. That’s where we collaborate,’ Tinston said.”
“The team at Defense Healthcare Management Systems, which manages the DOD’s MHS Genesis platform, is building a suite of products that aligns with the mission and continually improves workflows and capabilities within the EHR, said Program Executive Officer Holly Joers. The two departments are also looking to share best practices, workload experience, technology and lessons learned to support EHR implementation.”
“’We want our systems within VA to be interoperable, we obviously are looking forward to interoperability and the pursuit of that with DOD, but also community providers through health information exchange,’ Windom said.”
“A key driver of data interoperability is the joint Health Information Exchange Initiative (jHIE), which securely connects health and benefit information systems from DOD, VA, and other federal and private sector partners. Since its conception, Tinston said that FEHRM has been engaging with other health information exchanges and across departments to advance interoperability…” Read the full article here.
Source: Agencies Emphasize Unified Approach to Federal EHR Modernization – By Sarah Sybert, November 19, 2021. GovernmentCIO.
