Military to Finally Have Streamlined Electronic Medical Record from Enlistment to Death

After spending billions of dollars upgrading their computer systems to create electronic health records (EHRs) for the military that wound up not “talking” to each other, the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs has announced they’ve agreed to find a way to coordinate the systems.

This way, members of the military can be sure their medical records will follow them once they leave the service, wherever they go, making it easier to get care and reducing costs for the service.

The Pentagon has announced that the two departments will develop a joint computerized system for health care records that could provide a single source of data on a veteran’s health, from enlistment through death, according to a recent story in the New York Times.

The sprawling health care systems handle more than 15 million active-duty troops, retirees, veterans and their families.

The agreement comes after the Government Accountability Office found that the departments were falling behind in developing a shared system for electronic records.

That report said both departments had spent billions of dollars upgrading their data systems in ways that did not increase coordination between their systems and recommended that they do something about it. 

In 2009, President Obama said the government would create a national electronic medical records system for the military that would serve as a model for broad reform of U.S. healthcare administration.

The system, organized by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, would follow military personnel from active duty through retirement, keeping records organized and complete, according to Reuters. But so far, that has just not happened.

Veterans say that under the current system, they sometimes have to carry paper copies of their military service health records to their new doctors at veterans’ hospitals and that some of the records that are transferred electronically get lost because the two systems are not always compatible, according to the New York Times.

In 2009 the government announced it would spend more than $20 billion in stimulus funds to reimburse providers for electronic medical records deployments. The Obama administration hoped the money would inspire a whole new wave of healthcare practitioners to create and use the systems, according to an article in InformationWeek.

The project had some problems going forward and now the two departments have said they will join together to try to fix them.