The Department of Defense, in advance of the rollout of its new enterprise electronic health record (EHR) system, has announced a partnership with Medical Information Network – North Sound (MIN-NS) to enable patient care data exchange across networks.
MIN-NS, a Mount Vernon, Washington-based provider of integrated patient records and healthcare IT managed services, announced a new multi-year partnership with the DoD will to and support a common community source of patient data portal that will be accessible in any clinic or hospital within the DoD system regardless of location.
The DoD's patient records currently exist on multiple electronic platforms and systems. The Department is investing in moving to a common EHR worldwide, called the Military Health System (MHS) Genesis EHR. Military bases in Washington State are the first adopters and pilots of the upgrade program.
“We are very excited to support and work with the DoD on this mission critical solution. Time and again, it's been proven that when patient data is readily accessible by the clinician, at the point of care, then the clinician will be able to make better, more well-informed decisions for the patient,” Mark Quenneville, CEO at MIN-NS, said in a statement. “As many of our service men and women are deployed around the globe these days. MIN-NS provides a bridge that enable the patient's care record to virtually follow any member of the armed forces, and contractors, from their home base to any deployed location around the globe.”
As part of the partnership, MIN-NS will provide portal access to military providers now, with integration into their new EHR to follow. According to a MIN-NS press release, one connection to MIN-NS gives DoD providers located locally, regionally or internationally seamless, secure access to care records from multiple civilian healthcare providers on many different record systems.
MIN-NS has connected local civilian providers for over five years, making patient records available regardless of where in the area the care was delivered and recorded. During a six month period of 2016, over 5,000 Tricare patients were seen one or more times by clinicians. MINS-NS will enable their records of civilian care to be available to their military providers when the patients visit emergency departments or specialists using the MINS-NS network. Conversely, civilian providers will have immediate access to detailed records of care by military providers.
