Pentagon electronic health record system (re)launch
In what must be one of the biggest electronic health records (EHR) worldwide, the Pentagon is introducing its AHLTA system today (better remember the acronym than its unwieldy meaning: Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application). AHLTA was first known as CHCS II (Composite Health Care System) and replaces CHCS I (for the record President Bush had called for a national EHR in his 2004 State of the Union address). Ultimately the system will cover about 9.2 million military active and retired members and their families, 130,000 MHS (Military Health System) staff, 411 medical clinics, 417 dental clinics and 70 military hospitals. According to the official site, AHLTA will support “in any given week”: 2.1 million prescriptions, 1.8 million outpatient encounters, 400,000 dental procedures, 19,000 inpatient admissions and 2,000 births. Its yearly maintenance cost should be about $100M. GovExec and GCN offer more details.
Eventually paper records will be archived, allowing military personnel to move between duty stations and facilities with a permanent, easy access to their up-to-date electronic record. With current prescriptions and drug allergies made available to health providers, medical errors should occur less often. And since past radiology or laboratory reports will be part of the patient’s file too, unnecessary repeat procedures should wane too. DoD personnel is however warned that their appointments might last a bit longer to allow for data entry into AHLTA.
04/13/06 update: Stars and Stripes: New medical records system a headache for doctors.
November 22, 2005 Related topics: IT & software