TOPICS
TOPICS
Army abruptly stops rollout of electronic dental record application
The Army Medical Command abruptly stopped fielding an electronic dental record application that is part of a larger health record network the Defense Department operates for soldiers, according to internal e-mails provided to Nextgov.
Maj. Gen. David Rubenstein, the Army's deputy surgeon general, directed what he called a "strategic pause" in the deployment of AHLTA Dental, which was supposed to start this week, according to the e-mails. AHLTA is the electronic health record system operated by Defense for members of the uniformed services.
The Defense Health Information Management System, which provides information technology systems to all three services, said the Army had planned to start deploying AHLTA Dental to 18 clinics this week in a briefing posted on the Health Information Management System's Web site.
The internal e-mails did not detail why the Army had stopped deploying AHLTA Dental, but a consultant who works closely with the Military Health System said the service may have decided to use its own electronic dental record, called the Corporate Dental Application, instead of AHLTA Dental, which both the Air Force and the Navy have embraced.
The Military Health System views the AHLTA electronic health record and its dental application as the only system to integrate all dental and health information in an individual database, called the MHS Clinical Data Repository, which maintains records on more than 9 million active-duty and retired military personnel and their families. MHS originally had planned to deploy AHLTA Dental to more than 370 Army, Air Force and Navy dental clinics worldwide.
Writing in the MHS Blog in March, Col. David Gilbertson, program manager for AHLTA, said AHLTA Dental will provide "dentists and their staff graphical charting tools for use during the exam to record the patient's pre-existing oral conditions, any current disease, and the patient's treatment needs. Everything from documenting teeth cleanings to performing comprehensive periodontal, endodontic and prosthodontic evaluation and treatment charting is supported by the application."
Gilbertson said he viewed computer charting of a patient's teeth as the "big leap forward" for AHLTA Dental and pointed out that the Army's Corporate Dental Application still used paper charts.
SAIC developed AHLTA Dental, and in June, the Army awarded an $11.6 million contract to maintain and enhance the Corporate Dental Application.
A spokeswoman for the Army Medical Command did not respond to questions before this article was posted.
COMMENTS
- So...in reading this, the Army obligated $11M dollars in June when they agreed to accept AHLTA Dental and now they don't want it. They want to stay with their archaic system that is a stand-alone system...not move forward with the times and modernize. They already have AHLTA for medical...and the dental and medical programs work together worldwide. military member can be anywhere and they have instant access to medical and dental records. CDA is a stand-alone system. With the amount of money they have put into AHLTA Dental, the number of military sites already trained, the Army wants to throw that away? Isn't the $11M they obligated in June considered Fraud, Waste, and Abuse? The Army is the oldest and the biggest, but DHIMS has praised AHLTA Dental and Medical and needs to stand up and tell the Army they accepted, the money has been obligated, sites have been trained, and if CDA is as great as they think, wouldn't they have won the original contract with the DoD? Concerned Tax Payer Posted November 11, 2009 5:27 PM
- To Citizen, Excellence, streamlining solutions... Great concepts on paper, but it does not describe AHLTA dental. For an administrator, it's a great tool, becasue it was designed as a data mining application, not a patient centered, clinical e-record. For a clinician like me, it adds 2-3 hours a day to make patient care entries in AHALTA, becasue it is a cumbersom, extremely flawwed application. Sometimes it takes me longer to enter the entry in AHALTA than it takes me to see the patient! My hats off to you Army, for taking a stand for the clinicians and our patients. AF DDS Posted November 5, 2009 10:20 AM
- Spoken like a true SAIC employee Chuck! If hAHLTA Dental is only half the productivity killer that the Medical version is then we can look forward to the services curtailing Active Duty dental care in addition to Family Member and Retiree. What's a little dental readiness among friends, as long as we have a shiny, non-functioning, enterprise wide product? E.J. Posted November 5, 2009 8:56 AM
PROMO RIGHT: GBC
Advancing the business of government through analysis, insight and the sharing of best practices.
SPONSORED RESEARCH
Achieving a Greener Federal Government IBM
Federal Cybersecurity: Securing the Nation's Information IBM
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: New Requirements for Tracking and Reporting Federal Workforce Data Kronos
Managing the Stimulus: A Candid Survey of Federal Program Managers Accenture and Microsoft
Improving Collaboration and Productivity in 21st Century Government: The Role of Communication for Government Executives Cisco
