New electronic health record system lands at Edwards

  • Published
  • By Giancarlo Casem
  • 412th Test Wing Public Affairs

The 412th Medical Group began the transition to the new Medical Health System GENESIS on Edwards Air Force Base, California, Sept. 26.

GENESIS is a new electronic health record system being implemented at DoD hospitals and clinics. It aims to provide better quality of care and improved safety for servicemembers and their families by becoming the single medical and dental record that all doctors, dentists, nurses, medical technicians and other healthcare providers will use manage patients’ care.

The goal for MHS GENESIS is to consolidate health information into single platform and provide a continuum of care from point of injury to definitive treatment at any military treatment facility worldwide,” said Master Sgt. Robert Rivers, 412th Medical Group, MHS GENESIS Go-Live Command Center Director. “Genesis will greatly increase efficiencies for both beneficiaries and healthcare professionals through a DoD-wide, unified system that will also continue into the Veterans Affairs medical care system.”

Ultimately, this single platform will offer a seamless continuity of medical records for servicemembers and their families, Rivers added.

According to Rivers, the benefits of incorporating MHS GENESIS for Airmen and their families centers around the integration of this electronic health record with patient centered medical care. The improved ability to facilitate two way communication will increase patient-provider interaction and promote patient safety, greater population health, as well as quicker medical record availability.  

Rivers also added that visit summaries are quickly available at the end of each appointment and visible online 72 hours post-visit via the MHS GENESIS Patient Portal. The MHS GENESIS’s Patient Portal will support beneficiaries by allowing them to securely message their care provider team, request prescription renewals, view their lab results, make appointments on-line and access their medical records.

Patients were able to start using the MHS GENESIS Patient Portal to communicate with their care team at the end of September. The Patient Portal offers a number of services to assist in managing patients’ healthcare and is mobile-phone friendly.

As with any new technology adoption, the MHS GENESIS transition team has warned that it will take time for clinic staff to learn how to efficiently navigate the system which may cause longer than routine wait times. As a reminder, active duty dependents and TRICARE beneficiaries may use off base urgent care without a referral. Active duty servicemembers may also use off base urgent care, but require a referral.

“While this transition has been planned for quite some time, we used a phased approach to our transition to MHS GENESIS,” Rivers explained. “First, we have reduced the amount of daily appointments as we transition to our new electronic health record in order to focus on providing safe and patient centered healthcare. Next, we incorporated lessons learned from previous integrations at Madigan Army Medical Center (Joint Base Lewis-McChord), David Grant Medical Center (Travis AFB), and the 366th Medical Group (Mountain Home AFB).”

The MHS GENESIS Transition Command Center was established to monitor daily issues and work rapid mitigations during the first 14 days of the transition.  

“In addition, we also leveraged experience from members across the Defense Health Agency who were on site to assist medical staff with workflow builds and system checks to expedite efficiency,” Rivers said. “These efforts have been very crucial to the successful adoption our new EHR (Electronic Health Record).”

During this time of transition, team and Edwards AFB Clinic staff plans to continue to provide safe, high quality healthcare. They would also like to thank Team Edwards for their patience.

“We would first like to thank our patient population for their patience and feedback as we transition. While wait times may increase in the immediate future, we want our patients to feel at home here at the 412th Medical Group and trust that the care we provide is both safe and patient focused,” River said. “We welcome any feedback during this time and will continue to provide updates and information as it relates the employment of our new Electronic Health Record.

Note: Patients may submit feedback through the Patient Advocate at 661-305-7375, or through the 412th MDG Official Facebook page.