The Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) office, along with Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other partners, hit many milestones in 2024 on our journey to implement a single, common Federal Electronic Health Record (EHR) to enhance patient care and provider effectiveness. Below are just a few of our successes from the past year:
Deployed the Federal EHR at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (Lovell FHCC): In March 2024, the FEHRM, DOD, and VA worked together to complete the award-winning Federal EHR deployment at Lovell FHCC. This historic deployment reflected cross-agency accomplishments that can be leveraged by other health care organizations looking to integrate and streamline care, transforming health care on an even broader scale. We converged and standardized different processes, workflows, and more to enable the Departments to deploy the same EHR together. Together, we integrated efforts, overcame joint challenges, and delivered solutions to complex problems—including bridging communications differences and gaps and creating 60+ joint communications materials for the deployment, some of which are available on the FEHRM website.
• Shared New Lessons Learned to Enhance Deployments: We collected and shared nearly 182 successes and lessons learned, most of which related to the Federal EHR deployment at Lovell FHCC. Check out our Lovell FHCC Successes and Lessons Learned Executive Summary to learn more about successes and lessons learned regarding partner coordination, resources, communication, training and peer support, and user role provisioning. These will be leveraged for remaining joint sharing sites and beyond.
• Hosted a Record-Breaking Federal EHR Annual Summit to Engage with End Users: We hosted a record-breaking fourth Federal EHR Annual Summit in October, where more than 1,700 Federal EHR clinical staff and other participants shared invaluable feedback on their end-user experiences in more than 35 interactive sessions. They provided insight into change management, best practices for using the Federal EHR, and a deeper understanding of decision-making processes that shape end-user workflows─enhancing the Federal EHR to help providers achieve better health care experiences and outcomes. We look forward to hosting a modified version of this event at the Military Health System Conference in April 2025 as a Federal EHR track.
• Released Federal EHR Updates to Continuously Improve the System: We continued delivering Federal EHR updates in response to end-user feedback. We enhanced existing capabilities, introduced new interfaces, and remained current on software code. Read our Capability Block 11 informational placemat for more details on the latest improvements.
• Expanded Immunization Data Exchange to Benefit Providers and Patients: We expanded the number of Federal EHR sites that can exchange immunization data through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Immunization Gateway to DOD sites in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Texas, and Virginia. They join the initial DOD sites in California, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Washington, and VA sites using the Federal EHR that are also live with this capability in Idaho, Illinois, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. Read more details on LinkedIn and in the FEHRM Activities section of the FEHRM Frontline newsletter’s fall issue.
• Increased Federal Registries to Drive Data Availability and Usability. We enabled 27 federal registries with 299 measures in 2024. These registries help drive availability and usability of data to improve patient outcomes through integrated workflow recommendations called Health Maintenance Reminders.
• Added New Toxic Exposure Clinical Terms to Enhance Exposure-Related Care: The FEHRM identified significant gaps in data availability related to the health consequences of military service-related toxic exposures and the lack of standardized coding for these exposures. The office added 27 new related terms to the National Library of Medicine’s Systematized Nomenclature for Medicine Clinical Terms—a comprehensive standardized clinical library used worldwide and the primary coding repository for clinical terms related to toxic exposures—for clinicians to use worldwide, enhancing exposure-related care and research. Read more about this effort on the FEHRM LinkedIn page.
• Drove Federal EHR Configuration Changes: The FEHRM continued to drive joint decision making through the Joint Sustainment and Adoption Board (JSaAB), adjudicating 1,249 Federal EHR changes that impacted multiple sites and the enterprise configuration and improved the user experience. Learn more about how the JSaAB ensures Federal EHR changes benefit all.
As these accomplishments show, we are better when we all work together to provide the best health care experience for our providers and patients. We continue to collaborate in the new year to transform the landscape and continue to deliver top-quality health care to all Americans.
Article link: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fehrm_federalehr-activity-7285370748192370688-gsFW?
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