One system, one fight

  • Published
  • By 2nd. Lt. Nicolle Mathison
  • 57th Wing Public Affairs

The 99th Medical Group (MDG) is scheduled to launch a new electronic healthcare record system known as Medical Health System (MHS) GENESIS on Sept. 26.

MHS GENESIS provides enhanced secure technology to manage beneficiaries' health information.

The system integrates inpatient and outpatient solutions and streamlines medical and dental information across the continuum of care into one system. When fully employed, MHS GENESIS will provide a single health record for service members, veterans, retirees and their families.

“My father's generation along with everyone that wears a uniform will have the same electronic medical record and everything will be continuous,” said Col. Bryan White, 99th Medical Group chief medical informatics officer. Everything will be synchronous. Everything will be one and that's what this is all about.”

As a paperless form of record keeping, MHS GENESIS differs from the older Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (ALTA). Once patients are admitted, their practitioners will have access to the same medical files no matter when or where they’ve been admitted.

“Instead of having to contact all of the clinics I’ve ever been seen at to collect all of my medical records, this new system will already have it all in one database. That’s easy accessibility both for the patients and the doctors,” said Lt. Col. (Retired) Jeffery Mathison.

MHS GENESIS provides medical practitioners a faster and more efficient way of sharing medical outcomes and data with other healthcare systems and the patient themselves. Additionally, patients and healthcare companies, like Tri-Care, will be able to directly pay medical bills via GENESIS.

“It's going to have a lot of integrated capabilities to it, so that you will have more facile or more ­­efficient access to ordering medications, reviewing labs, reviewing old records, viewing x-rays and the new EMR [electronic medical record],” said White.

The goal is to increase the interface mechanism or back and forth information flow, White explained.

Patients who have utilized services at the MOMMC within the last 12 months will be automatically enrolled in GENESIS. All services to patients and practitioners across the armed forces are expected to be fully functional by 2023.

The changeover may cause delays in prescription activation and wait times. Therefore, patients are advised to activate required prescriptions before MHS-GENESIS is activated.

For more information about MHS GENESIS, please visit https://www.health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/Technology/Military-Electronic-Health-Record/MHS-GENESIS