Frequently Asked Questions

The Federal EHR, along with the joint HIE, empowers health care administrators and providers with more data. The data gained from the Federal EHR and joint HIE helps enable more standard workflows and practices to enhance clinical decision-making and health care. It also helps drive business decisions, inform population health initiatives, and improve patient outcomes through innovations.

For example, the Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) joint data management and analysis efforts led to the ability to improve the process for prescribing opioids. Patients at risk of an opioid overdose who receive opioid pain medication also receives a life-saving drug that counteracts the opioid prescribed along with education.

Another example of effective HIE is the integration of an Immunization Forecaster into the EHR. The forecaster embedded into the EHR leverages Centers for Disease Control and Prevention clinical decision support of immunizations to help pediatricians know when patients need the next round of appropriate vaccines. This new functionality also reduces clinician time and effort, assessing and deciding which vaccines may be due. Even if a child falls behind, it recommends a catch-up schedule. This effort was especially timely upon the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine.

DOD is also looking into developing a trauma registry to capture battlefield injuries and the impact of such injuries throughout a beneficiary’s lifetime.

The EHR and subsequent data now available helps make all these innovations in health care possible, so beneficiaries can get the best health care as soon as possible. This just scratches the surface on what is possible with EHR data to transform health care delivery to Veterans.

The Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disengaged with providers at the start of COVID-19, so the providers could focus on responding to the national pandemic. In the meantime, the Departments re-planned continuously, seeking ways to enhance capabilities and gain efficiencies, so they were ready to respond once the providers could focus on EHR deployments again. For example, the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) shifted to an entirely virtual training model that DOD and VA learned from and incorporated into their training techniques.

COVID-19 demonstrated the ability of the single, common Federal EHR to quickly adapt to changing demands and support providers during the pandemic. For example, when providers needed to order COVID-19 tests, and the EHR didn’t yet have that capability, those changes were made in four hours within the new EHR versus four weeks within the legacy system. The new EHR is much more responsive to changes driven by COVID-19.

So, the FEHRM did not slowed down its progress with EHR modernization during the pandemic. It remains focused on delivering capabilities to those clinicians on the front lines delivering care and their patients.

As for how it impacted the future of EHR modernization, COVID-19 demonstrated virtual health as a priority. In response, the FEHRM pivoted toward accelerating the adoption of tools, platforms, and joint capabilities to deliver telemedicine solutions that meet the operational requirements driven by the pandemic. For example, the FEHRM is leveraging VA’s patient-facing video platform to develop a parallel platform for DOD.

Moving forward, there are many opportunities to understand and think about the impact of the new normal of health-care delivery and how the EHR and information technology capabilities the FEHRM delivers can support the new normal.