DOD deploys health record system at second facility

The Department of Defense rolled out its electronic healthcare record system to a second facility on July 17, in a move officials said brings a host of new capabilities to the system.  Naval Hospital Oak Harbor, in Washington state, is the first inpatient facility to come online, following Fairchild Air Force Base's launch in February.

"The Department of Defense and the Military Health System are excited to deploy MHS Genesis at our second site in the Pacific Northwest," Stacy Cummings, who heads the Program Executive Office, Defense Healthcare Management Systems, said in an announcement of the rollout.  She noted that the Naval Hospital Oak Harbor deployment incorporates workflows and integrations for maternity care and surgery, among other services.

The system uses the Cerner commercial health record system, and the vendor group responsible for installation and upkeep is led by tech integrator Leidos. The group won a $4.3 billion contract to consolidate and modernize the military's electronic health record systems in 2015, and last month the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it too would move to MHS Genesis.

Both Fairchild Air Force Base and Naval Hospital Oak Harbor originally were slated to deploy MHS Genesis by the end of 2016,  but the complexities of the project prompted the Defense Healthcare Management Systems organization to push back and stagger the launches.   Two more sites in the Pacific Northwest -- Naval Hospital Bremerton and Madigan Army Medical Center -- also are scheduled to deploy the system in 2017.