The Military Health System’s new electronic health record for Department of Defense medical sites, MHS GENESIS, is officially live at Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune. At 7 a.m. on March 19, NMCCL staff began using the new system for patient care for active duty service members, retirees, and their families.

NMCCL’s launch kicks off a sequence of medical sites across Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune transitioning to the MHS GENSIS platform. MHS GENESIS will also go live in the coming days at Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point in addition to sites throughout II MEF and MARSOC.

“We are excited to finally deploy this new system and see it in action,” said U.S. Navy Commander Jessica Pipkin, who has served as the MHS GENESIS site point of contact for Camp Lejeune. “Everything is coming together, and all the hard work will be worth it.”

In the coming weeks, NMCCL patients can expect to see a rise in wait times for appointments and at high-traffic areas like the pharmacy and laboratory. This temporary increase in waiting periods is due to the staff’s need to become accustomed to using MHS GENESIS in real time.

“For patients, during the first month, we expect fewer appointments because appointments are going to take longer, but we don’t expect this effect to be indefinite,” Pipkin said. “As providers are speeding up, getting through the system faster, putting everything they’ve learned into application, which will result in quicker appointments and us seeing more people.”

NMCCL gathered employees on March 18 for a ribbon cutting ceremony to commemorate the pending rollout. Crews worked throughout the night to meet the launch deadline the next morning.

NMCCL Commander and Director, U.S. Navy Captain Reginald Ewing, spoke to the accomplishments of staff to reach the go-live point.

“Our personnel have given a lot of time and heart to learning how to use this new electronic health record. Approximately 3,800 personnel have trained on MHS GENESIS,” Ewing said. “You have tallied well over 7,000 hours of in-classroom training which doesn’t include the many hours of virtual training staff have done on their own.”

MHS GENESIS promises to be a faster, better management of patient records of care meaning no more carrying hard copies of health records from one duty station to another. MHS GENESIS allows for medical records, and dental records for active duty specifically, to be in a centralized location, making it easier for providers to access health history from DoD sites across the globe.

NMCCL’s MHS GENESIS leadership team expects challenges over the coming weeks and months as the entire staff becomes comfortable with the new EHR, but they hope patients will continue being understanding.

“Just know that on the other side of this transition, it’s going to be better and what you’ve wanted for your health care record,” said Pipkin.

NMCCL is part of a wave of North Carolina military sites going live over the next week to include Fort Bragg near Fayetteville and Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro.