Naval Hospital Oak Harbor (NHOH) www.med.navy.mil/sites/nhoh located on Whidbey Island in the State of Washington, was selected as one of the first Navy hospital to deploy the Department of Defense’s new integrated EHR, “MHS GENESIS.
Eventually, MHS GENESIS will affect about 27,000 service members, dependents, retires, and other eligible beneficiaries in the local area who depend on NHOH. Overall the new EHR system will make electronic health records available to 9.4 million DOD beneficiaries and about 205,000 MHS personnel globally.
The system combines health records from primary care providers, pharmacies, laboratory, immunization records, and dental clinics all on one network and enables the Navy base to share information with other civilians’ healthcare providers.
NHOH staff members helped develop and execute more than 20 patient scenarios spanning 30 different clinical and non-clinical departments to test the capabilities of MHS GENESIS. NHOH has 64 “Super-Users,” who are fully involved in the training and implementation of MHS GENESIS. They will be able to provide support throughout the transition.
The new EHR system maintains EHR interoperability with VA medical facilities through the use of the Joint Legacy Viewer. In addition, the TRICARE military health system’s patient portal has been redesigned to make it possible for patients and healthcare providers to access the new EHR system.
NHOH is the second of four locations in the Pacific Northwest selected to deploy MHS GENESIS. The 92nd Medical Group at Fairchild Air Force Base was the first medical clinic selected to deploy the new EHR and has been using the program since February 2017.
The next operational sites are scheduled to be the Naval Hospital Bremerton and Madigan Army Medical Center. Implementation at Bremerton is set for late September with full deployment scheduled to be completed in 2022 across the U.S and worldwide.