MHS GENESIS was the focal point as Naval Hospital Bremerton (NHB) hosted Maj. Gen. Lee E. Payne, Assistant Director for Combat Support Agency, Defense Health Agency, on August 28, 2018.

Payne’s visit and tour of NHB centered on meeting with several command teams – Outpatient Pharmacy, Urgent Care Clinic and Labor and Delivery - to discuss the challenges, workflow, interoperability and project implementation with the new electronic health record MHS GENESIS.

NHB’s Outpatient Pharmacy has been perhaps the most notably influenced area by MHS GENESIS due to its associated impact on patients.

NHB’s Outpatient Pharmacy is routinely busy. An average day has the staff processing 2,391 prescriptions and medication orders, including 385,824 prescriptions and medication orders in 2017.

The new system initially caused longer wait-times than anticipated for beneficiaries waiting on medications, and staff were compelled to address a host of software concerns as part of a steep learning curve without sacrificing patient safety.

“Progress has been made in a number of areas and there is optimism with the MHS GENESIS workflow providing additional safety checks and benefiting our patients,” said Lt. Cmdr. Dean Kang, NHB Pharmacy department head, citing that there have been a number of improvements made with the Outpatient Pharmacy work space, workflow and staffing that have returned wait times to normal. 

Significant benefits have also been noted on Labor and Delivery. “The new electronic health record allows us to bar code scan medications, which enhances patient safety when delivering medication to a newborn,” commented Lt. Danielle Mason, L&D department head. 

NHB is one of the four sites in the Pacific Northwest, along with U.S. Air Force 92nd Medical Group at Fairchild Air Force Base, Naval Health Clinic Oak Harbor and Madigan Army Medical Center, to deploy MHS GENESIS in 2017. MHS GENESIS is a single integrated electronic health record for service members, veterans and their families that integrates inpatient and outpatient medical and dental information across the continuum of care, from point of injury – whether ship, shore, submarine, and squadron - to the military hospital or clinic.

The first anniversary of deploying MHS GENESIS is fast approaching on Sept. 23, 2018, and the past year has seen NHB staff continue to lead in refining their collective ability in operating the new electronic health record.

“Since MHS GENESIS has been deployed, I continue to be impressed by the pride our staff takes to test and refine the new system, while continuing to provide safe, high quality patient-centered care. There have been challenges, but we have made significant progress and improvements that will benefit the rest of the Military Health System going forward. MHS GENESIS is now functional on our carriers and submarines in the Pacific Northwest, allowing ship’s medical staff to communicate directly with hospital providers on operationally relevant issues related to their Sailors and Marines.  The new system is much more capable than our previous legacy systems. We are only beginning to scratch the surface of what the new electronic health record can do to enhance safety, continuity of care, and interoperability.  The future is bright.” said Capt. Jeffrey Bitterman, NHB commanding officer.

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