According to the Navy NewsStand, the new system of medical record keeping known as the Composite Health Care System II (CHCSII), will be implemented at the National Naval Medical Center starting September 18.
The Navy NewsStand says that the system is a part of larger initiative from the Department of Defense:
CHCSII will allow medical personnel to enter patient information directly into an electronic medical record without needing to first handwrite the record of the visit.
CHCSII will maintain the digital information in a centralized database, creating a comprehensive, life-long, computer-based patient record for each and every military health beneficiary. Furthermore, since the program acts as a database, hospital functions like laboratory, radiology and pathology test results will be faster. CHCSII will also improve patient safety through automatic alerts of potential allergic reactions and drug-to-drug interactions.
“CHCSII implementation at our medical center is an exciting endeavor that will keep our staff functioning on the cutting edge of technology,” said Capt. Mark Olesen, National Naval Medical Center’s deputy commander. “This is a great change for our staff and patients, because it propels us into the future of medicine, which is a world of immediate digital access, virtually unlimited and everlasting information storage capacity, and world-wide connectivity.”
Although CHCSII will not immediately eliminate the use of paper records, as hospital officials point out, it is the first step toward a more efficient and integrated Navy Medicine.
“The Navy currently maintains more than 500 military treatment facilities throughout the fleet; each with their own paper records keeping department. CHCSII will connect us all to each other with the click of a keypad,” said Capt. Kenneth Senn, CHCSII project officer at the hospital. “Eventually, after CHCSII is implemented worldwide, a sick or injured Sailor treated on a ship halfway around the world can be transferred to Bethesda and all of his medical information is accessible — even if he didn’t have time to grab his paper record.”
While the new system will benefit Navy Medicine, CHCSII is not a sea service specific initiative and is, in fact, designed to improve joint military medical operations. Proponents of the program have said CHCSII will improve interoperability between the branch services’ health care systems through the use of one centralized system instead of the current separate medical structures for each branch.
“Enterprise-wide implementation of this system will support the commitment of the Defense Department to conduct population health management throughout the [Military Health System],” Senn said.
More at the Navy NewsStand…
(hat tip: Medical Informatics Insider)
