Effective Jan.1, the Army required medical treatment facilities to deliver complete service treatment records to the Army Medical Department Retirement Processing Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, immediately following separation. Service treatment records include medical records, dental records and related private sector health care records of active-duty service members.
In an effort to meet Army requirements, the Fort Detrick Barquist Army Health Clinic continues transitioning to an electronic records system to streamline processes when a Soldier separates or retires from the Army.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Army Medical Command provided directives to military medical facilities to transition paper records to electronic files so they would be readily available to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs when a service member needed them.
“This process will ultimately benefit service members because the documentation for possible disability claims is readily available for VA processing,” said Fort Detrick BAHC Chief of Patient Administration, Deforrest Hunter. “Right now we are essentially performing an audit to go back and make sure we have processed all the STRs for service members that have already separated or retired. All of our current patients have electronic records. Our ultimate goal is to become completely paperless.”
Currently, when a Soldier separates or retires the health clinic forwards their STR to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, on their effective date to be processed by the ARPC. Once the STR arrives at the ARPC, the records are scanned and uploaded to Health Artifact and Image Management Solution, a central database available to the VA and the Department of Defense.
“This is a tedious process and we have limited resources, but ultimately this system will be better for everyone,” said Hunter.
Hunter is currently performing inventory to verify that all records get processed in accordance with MEDCOM requirements.
“All of our current records are being processed in a fashion that meets the requirement and the timeline established by MEDCOM,” said Hunter.