Speaking at the 2016 Open Source Electronic Health Record Alliance (OSEHRA) Summit http://summit.osehra.org, Vice Admiral Raquel C. Bono, MD, Director of the Defense Health Agency (DHA) www.health.mil/dha said “Modernized EHR systems are needed to provide care to the millions of service members, plus the international patients that are acquired when the U.S is in conflict, along with the many veterans requiring care and rehabilitation.”
In August 2015, DOD awarded a multi-billion contract for a new EHR system to Cerner www.cerner.com, Leidos www.leidos.com, and Accenture www.accenture.com. As Bono said, “DHA is working closely with the Service Medical Departments and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics to successfully implement the new EHR system. DOD is looking to industry for solutions that could help DHA move forward and achieve commercial EHR implementation.
An EHR system is due to be rolled out in the Pacific Northwest by the end of 2016. The DHA’s role is to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to support the technology, people are being trained, and clinical and business processes are being reengineered to integrate the new technology into the military health system.
DOD and the Veterans Administration (VA) www.va.gov continue to share information. Today over 75,000 providers in both agencies can view individual medical records in the AHLTA record or the VA’s VistA www.ehealth.va.gov/vista.asp record through the Joint Legacy Viewer (JLV). Also, many community partners are now able to view service member and veteran records through JLV.
On June 1, 2016, it was announced all DOD non-active duty beneficiaries were automatically opted into the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) www.va.gov/vler system but the beneficiaries can opt-out or opt-in at any time.