The Gateway

Awards recently bestowed upon MC4 include the 22nd Annual Government Computer News Award for "Outstanding Information Technology Achievement in Government" (a.k.a. GCN Agency Award) and the Letterman Award. Additionally, MC4’s Iraq Region Lead Louis Carrion will receive a 2009 Federal Computer Week Rising Star Award.

MC4 celebrates these honors with all deployed medical units, since your efforts make these achievements possible.

Traditionally, USAR providers fulfilling 90-day theater rotations deploy with minimal or no exposure to the MC4 system before their boots hit the ground. As a result, they face a heavy learning curve when they are injected into the EMR workflow in theater.

To help these deploying providers, MC4 training will now be available at the Army Medical Department (AMEDD) Professional Management Command (APMC) at Fort Gillem, Ga. Last month, MC4 provided a four-hour block of instruction on AHLTA-T, TC2 and TMDS to USAR providers processing through APMC before rotating into theater.

We’ll continue building on this “train-the-trainer” program so that the APMC training team can better preparing our PROFIS medical workforce for what’s expected of them in theater. This represents a significant step in institutionalizing MC4 training for our deployable medical workforce.

Last month, Operation Vibrant Response provided consequence-management response forces (CCMRFs) the opportunity to practice using MC4 during a two-week disaster relief scenario held at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Active duty, U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) and National Guard personnel captured patient encounters and ordered class VIII supplies via the MC4 system. The supply orders were filled through the master ordering facility (MOF) hundreds of miles away—at Martin Army Community Hospital (MACH) at Fort Benning, Ga. MACH, one of six MOFs in the U.S., was designated for this exercise since it had not previously been tested to fulfill orders from the field.

The exercise held at Fort Leavenworth is a precursor for a larger domestic disaster relief training effort scheduled for November at Camp Atterbury, Ind.

To schedule MC4 training and support, complete the request form on the MC4 web site.

In August, MC4 supported the 28th Combat Support Hospital’s (CSH) third installment of command and control (C2) training at Fort Bragg, N.C. The 28th CSH has a unique mission ahead of them. They’ll be the first CSH to be split into five separate treatment facilities in theater.

To prepare, the 28th CSH simulated the use of MC4 systems in five different clinics during a week-long training exercise. To give the units greater flexibility and better access to assessing their performance, MC4 supported the exercise with two new training servers. Inpatient and outpatient data successfully flowed from MC4 laptops to the new TMDS and JMeWS training servers.

In the past we’ve had to coordinate with other organizations to facilitate medical tracking and surveillance reporting for unit exercises. These new training servers will help units better evaluate their MC4 use during exercise play.

Capturing medical data electronically is a crucial element of patient care. It doesn’t matter if the documentation takes place in garrison clinics, battlefield treatment facilities or remote corners of the world. To that end, MC4 now supports U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity (USAMMDA) physicians who stand ready to conduct special medical missions around the world.

USAMMDA leadership realized that their Special Medical Augmentation Response Teams (SMART) did not have the IM/IT systems required to support their deployed missions. The teams are prepared to deploy at a moment’s notice to administer medical care and issue medications.

The teams will have the ability to use MC4 systems to electronically chart patient notes in the outpatient application, AHLTA-T. The data collected will populate the Theater Medical Data Store (TMDS) providing worldwide access, as well as contribute heavily to command and control initiatives. For instance, if a SMART team were required to deploy in support of a mission within the Africa Command to inoculate AIDS patients with a new drug, they’d be able to digitally record their efforts with MC4 systems.

Our partnership with USAMMDA reinforces our commitment to providing a battle-tested technology solution for emerging Army requirements.