Dive Brief:
- Cerner's MHS Genesis EHR has gone live at four new Department of Defense sites, even though a DoD watchdog said it was neither effective nor functional, Federal Times reports.
- The new sites — Naval Health Clinic Lemoore, Travis Air Force Base and Presidio of Monterey, all in California, and Idaho's Mountain Air Force Base — follow Genesis' inaugural go-live at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington, in February, and July deployment at Naval Hospital Oak Harbor near Seattle.
- DoD officials told Federal Times that enhanced training and messaging should make for a smoother rollout than in the earlier Genesis launches.
Dive Insight:
The MHS Genesis project, which is set to replace a smorgasbord of aging health IT systems, including the Veterans Administration's 40-year-old VistA medical records system, has been met with criticism during its initial implementation at DoD sites. An April DoD report concluded the MHS Genesis deployment is "neither operationally effective nor operationally suitable" and cited user concerns about the accuracy of data sharing between MHS Genesis and outside systems.
The new system is intended to allow sharing of clinical information between DoD, the VA, Coast Guard and community providers. The VA iteration of MHS Genesis is to be implemented at three Pacific Northwest hospitals, but won't go live until March 2020.
VA Secretary Robert Wilkie has said his agency is taking tips from DoD's experience and "will add capabilities as necessary to meet the special needs of veterans, VA clinicians and our community care partners." The VA recently created an Office of Electronic Health Record Modernizationto oversee the Cerner transition.
The VA awarded Cerner its lucrative EHR contract in May after delays tied to interoperability issues. Originally valued at $10 billion, officials have speculated that staffing needs will likely push the final bill closer to $16 billion.
According to Cerner, the MHS Genesis system includes a number of new capabilities, including interoperability via Cerner's CareAware medical device platform, advanced clinical decision support, advanced specialty provider workflows and embedded clinical calculators and barcode medication administration. It also features a labor and maternity module that can create newborn records upon barcode scan and customized treatment plans for mother and child.
Full worldwide deployment at U.S. military installations is slated for completion in 2022.