The Army Surgeon General was reported in a recent Stars and Stripes article by Tom Philbot as saying AHLTA is a significant contributing factor to attrition of military medicine personnel. The Deputy Surgeons General from the Navy and Air Force were also described as having similar remarks. Efforts by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Dr. Ward Cascells to fix the problems are also detailed.
Here are some select quotes:
Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, Army surgeon general, blamed AHLTA’s failures on “lack of a clear, actionable strategy and poor execution” from its inception. More pointedly, Schoomaker said the new DoD blueprint for reform still lacks an overall strategy. He seeks deeper involvement in its design by the services and their health care providers -- the end users of an electronic health record system who have victimized by AHLTA’s poor design.
“Being the first service to vigorously support the fielding of AHLTA five years ago, we faced a near mutiny of our health care providers – our doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and others -- last summer,” Schoomaker told the military personnel subcommittee.
Physicians complain that AHLTA is too slow, too cumbersome and confusing, with frequent crashes and sluggish acceptance of patient data.Clinicians list AHLTA as their number-one professional frustration, with many saying they see fewer patients and have longer workdays, all because of the extra time it takes to work with AHLTA, or to work around it.
Comment: It's refreshing to see strong military medicine leadership: leading from the front, looking out for the welfare of your subordinates and doing what is right. I agree with the story's point that there are many potential benefits to a worldwide electronic medical record. It's pretty scary to think what military medicine could be like if AHLTA was really done right!
