Navy Medicine is a challenging occupation with long hours, a never-ending stream of patients, following up on phone calls and writing copious notes, prescriptions and referrals.

Then, add in the time spent taking care of collateral duties, finding time to work out, counseling and mentoring Sailors along with the meetings and training. Endless meetings and non-stop training, whether it’s readiness training or online computer courses. It’s a demanding, challenge for the most senior medical officer to the most junior hospital corpsman.

So how does the Navy truly get to the bottom line on how much time our caregivers actually spend on each of these tasks? How much does it actually cost to see a patient? Does a particular Military Treatment Facility (MTF) need more personnel to do the job or do they have too many?

Enter DMRSHi, the Defense Medical Human Resources System – internet. DMHRSi is an online program that manages human resources for the Defense Health Agency. It is the only Integrated Human resource system within the Department of Defense and provides a combined view of medical assets, including civilian and military personnel, contractors and volunteers.

“DMHRSi helps us better understand what it actually costs to see patients,” said Sherrie Morris, Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point’s (NHCCP) Data Quality and MEPRS manager. “It helps us understand the cost of doing business and provides a picture of what each provider does during the course of their day.”

Morris is an NHCCP's expert on all things DMHRSi. She was recently formally recognized by the Medical Inspector’s General Inspection Report for the following Notable Practice, after NHCCP’s most recent MEDIG inspection:

“The Command developed an all-out education and information campaign explaining the importance of complete, timely, and accurate Defense Medical Human Resources System Internet (DMHRSi) time cards. In addition to providing regular training, weekly presentations to the Executive Steering Committee, email notifications to lower level supervisors, and a cheat sheet of most-used codes, the Data Quality Manager is also a required stop for Command check-in. As a result, the Command is maintaining a DMHRSi completion compliance of over 95 percent. With the support of the Chair of the Medical Executive Committee, the Command has also reduced its rate of “Crazy Eights,” where staff assign eight hours a day to a single code instead of the total time spent in different work centers or activities, to five percent. This achievement was recently noted by the Deputy Surgeon General.”

Morris has put in place a system at NHCCP that focuses on training employees from the day they check into the command.

“First, we explain the business rules and what to record and timelines for employee submission,” said Morris. “Then, I provide a task listing showing all the DMHRSi codes we use. Third, we provide the Readiness Training Categories, which gives examples of what Readiness codes are to be used for training and finally, we provide a cheat sheet which has the most commonly used codes.

“We also have a DMHRSi brief in Command Indoctrination (INDOC) which is the same training provided on RELIAS (SWANK). This ensures new staff members have completed DMHRSi training by the time they complete INDOC and allows us to emphasis the importance of DMHRSi and to go over any questions. We also provide regular training for our timekeepers and time approvers. We hold quarterly training and one on one training as needed.”

A timekeeping status report is run daily to hold timekeepers and approvers accountable and enables the staff to provide immediate corrections when needed.

All of the training and emphasis on DMHRSi has the backing of command leadership. The Triad and Executive Steering Committee are briefed weekly so everyone knows the importance of DMHRSi.

“We do a great job with DMHRSi,” said NHCCP Commanding Officer Douglas Stephens. “Sixty percent of future MTF budgets are going to be performance based and impacted by DMHRSi data. This is significant and even more indicative of why we need to get DMHRSi right. Every staff member needs to accurately account for what they do during the day. This is an All Hands evolution.”

According to NHCCP’s Senior Nurse Executive Capt. Elisabet Prieto, “As we transition to the Defense Health Agency, DMHRSi is becoming increasingly important. Sherrie Morris and her team place a great deal of emphasis on accuracy. Being a small command helps us, but Sherrie’s diligence and training program have set the standard for the Navy. She has even worked with other MTFs to help them build their programs.”

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