The Department of Defense's Cerner EHR rollout last September went "much, much smoother" than the agency's initial deployment efforts in 2017, according to DOD officials, Nextgov reports.
DOD deployed its new Cerner-backed EHR, dubbed MHS Genesis, at four sites in California and Idaho in September 2019. The re-vamped rollout came after the agency's first implementation attempt in February 2017, which ultimately caused a delay to the project due to clinician reports of workflow problems such as issues with lab report requests.
For the September rollout, DOD instituted various alterations to its deployment strategy, including a new training initiative that used "peer experts" to help colleagues train each other on their new positions.
DOD plans to move forward with the momentum from the successful first wave of go-lives as it approaches its next wave this summer, said William Tinston, program executive officer for Defense Healthcare Management Systems, according to the report. The agency will deploy MHS Genesis at 25 sites simultaneously in June.
"While we made tremendous strides from our previous efforts … we need to industrialize the process, too. We need to make the deployment process such that we don't need to swarm in with labor, people and management attention to be effective," Mr. Tinston said. "…We continue to strive to squeeze the labor, automate this process as much as possible, put the tools in the [Military Treatment Facility] commander's hands so that they can be effective at managing their teams and the adoption at their facilities."
DOD plans to deploy MHS Genesis at all military medical facilities by the end of 2023.