624th Aeromedical Staging Squadron trains up for MHS Genesis rollout

  • Published
  • By James Bowman
  • 624th Regional Support Group

Earlier this fall, members of the 624th Aeromedical Staging Squadron (ASTS) gained hands-on training with the new electronic medical health records system being rolled out across all branches of the Department of Defense.

Military Health System (MHS) GENESIS is expected to be the system of record across all military treatment facilities globally by 2024, and recently became the system of record for all of the Hawaii Military Healthcare facilities.

“The 624th has done a terrific job in adapting to the program in such a short amount of time,” said Staff Sgt. Daniel Sillas, 9th Combat Operations Squadron, who served as one of the trainers for the rollout. “What really impressed me was that they asked questions and the medics did not shy away when faced with the unknown.”

To prepare for the system shift, ASTS worked collaboratively with the Air Force Reserve Command surgeon general, the 15th Medical Group, Branch Health Clinic (BHC) Makalapa, Tripler Army Medical Center and the Defense Health Agency over the last year to ensure their success. Senior Master Sgt. Lacey Sterling, aerospace medicine superintendent for ASTS, served as the site point of contact and training coordinator for the go-live event.

Within ASTS, 45 medical personnel completed over 20 hours of individual computer-based training; seven completed a week-long, in-person super-user training. Ensuring that reservists are afforded the same training opportunities as the active component was a key element to the ASTS success.

A single source of truth

“Having a single platform for patient records and care – which will follow our Airmen where ever they may be deployed – just makes sense,” said Sterling. “In many cases, healthcare facilities had several different systems for tracking a patient’s information. For example, a patient’s emergency room visits may have been kept in a separate system than their primary care histories. With MHS Genesis, all records will be housed in the same system, enabling doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers to have a patient’s full history at their fingertips – resulting in more informed decisions and better patient outcomes.”

When the rollout is complete across all DoD facilities, MHS Genesis will enable patients to receive continuous care during deployments or relocation. In addition, patients will have 24/7 access to their health information, can use the MHS Genesis patient portal to request appointments, renew prescriptions and send and receive messages from their providers.

MHS Genesis is available now for 624th RSG Reserve Citizen Airmen in Hawaii; adoption of the program for members of the 624th RSG in Guam is slated for 2023.