As advancements in technology and healthcare improve, so should our military’s telehealth. The Outpatient App is designed to automate military personnel’s healthcare workflow by simplifying communications and data transfers. The digital platform keeps track of appointments, immunizations, and more. In addition, medical readiness can be assessed in seconds, meaning our forces are always up to date on their records and able to deploy faster. Below are the current areas of focus for the Outpatient App.
Individual Medical Readiness
Medical readiness for military personnel is complicated and requires communication between multiple providers, officers, and soldiers. The Outpatient App takes the long process of gaining medical clearance and simplifies it. Connecting providers, UDMs, Med staff, and airmen on one platform allow areas of need to be readily identified and swiftly remedied. Everyone involved has a unique view of the information and knows precisely what needs to be accomplished. Communication is completed within the app, making a last-second readiness for deployment achievable.
The Outpatient App Medical Readiness System schedules, tracks and coordinates each step in the medical clearance process for deployment, commonly called Individual Medical Readiness (IMR). The process requires involvement and collaboration by teams of people from multiple departments. The Outpatient App simplifies the steps, enables quick and easy coordination, and overall makes the process way more efficient for everyone.
Each person in the system has a defined view based on their job. Airmen see what they need to do and who is involved helping them get it done. UDM’s and Med Staff see the member deployers and activities assigned to them. Commanders see the overview of their Squadron and any red flags needing attention.
For those in the field, especially Airmen preparing for deployment, accessing everything you need on your phone is a massive time-saver. Efficient, Quick, and Easy. This system is accessible on any connected device – desktop computer, tablet, or mobile phone. It is entirely interchangeable as well, meaning each user can choose whichever device type fits their work situation.
Schedule lab appointments and pregnancy tests with reminders so that airmen deployments aren’t held up. Includes real-time base level reporting that highlights missing activities.
Medical Staff creates appointments for Deployment-Related Health Assessments and UDMs and Commanders know if and when Airmen have completed them.
Ready Airmen, Grant Clearance – When deployers have completed all of their necessary medical checks, Airmen are granted medical clearance and their Commanders are notified their Airmen are cleared for duty.
Push Notifications with Broadcast – Send out important messages with the broadcast feature. This will send a push notification and Outpatient message to groups and individuals.
Realtime Updates with Metrics & Reports – Always know the readiness status of your Airmen in realtime with clear and modern digital reports that can also be exported as physical documents.
Periodic Health Assessment Management
Alongside the 60th Medical Group at Travis AFB, we integrated features into the Outpatient App to help automate the periodic health assessment coordination and management. Using collaborative technology, we made tracking and reporting on airmens’ health assessment statuses easy. The workflow process sends notifications to the service member’s device, reminding them to complete their assessment and remain compliant. In addition, admins can see an overview of the personnel who are compliant, scheduled, or in non-compliance. The dashboard is tailored to the user, meaning sensitive information is only available to those that are cleared for it.
Outpatient App’s PHA Smart Alert and Management System is a Telehealth solution to automate and improve the Periodic Health Assessment (PHA) management process using a Collaboration and Editing technology (PHACE) in combination with a Smart Alert and Reporting technology (SIMRAN).
Similar to the steps of IMR coordination and tracking, Outpatient App includes the additional features to track steps for Periodic Health Assessment (PHA). PHA is an annual requirement for all Service Members, and also becomes an IMR requirement during pre-deployment preparation.
PHA, Labs & Immunizations Scheduler
The Outpatient app has dedicated workflows for the periodic health assessments, labs and immunizations that are assigned to each role. A real-time report system keeps track of the service members who have requested an appointment and saves the form information. The best part is that personnel don’t need an account with Outpatient App for the Admins to keep their forms and they can sign up directly from scanning a QR code. Admins can approve requests, view forms, and contact the requestee directly. Automating the process of PHA, labs and immunizations has never been easier.
This system is currently live in full operation at Travis AFB.
Dynamic mobile scheduling system for Periodic Health Assessments (PHA) – connecting Service Members and Med Staff asynchronously. The Airmen scan a QR code launching a mobile Signup Request Form to request a time slot. The Medical Staff monitor and respond to all requests. Thus enabling both sides to engage as schedules allow, and eliminating the need for live calls and email responses.
On the Admin Dashboard, you can see all of the incoming PHA time slot requests, approve or decline requests, contact each requestee and see the information they filled out from the request form.
After each appointment is confirmed, a reporting dashboard keeps track of all PHA’s scheduled via this system. Equally important, the efficiency / time saved across all service members is tracked.
Similar to the steps of IMR coordination and tracking, Outpatient App includes the additional features to track steps for Periodic Health Assessment (PHA). PHA is an annual requirement for all Service Members, and also becomes an IMR requirement during pre-deployment preparation.
Virtual Health Coordination System
The VHM System is designed to address a substantial gap in the Military Health System (MHS), the Provider to Provider communication and coordination process: Provider Consults (P2P), Urgent Referrals, and related messaging needs.
In addition, one of the biggest benefits is tracking these steps along the way and documenting them, such that all personnel are updated accordingly (Providers, Staff, Patient). Another significant component of this system is Provider On-Call Coordination (POCC). The system powers detailed shift scheduling across all providers and then automatically tracks the on-call providers for immediate virtual pager notifications and consult messaging.
Occupational Health Workflow Optimizer (Proposed)
Medical personnel must search five databases and two networks to pull relevant information for service members. The Outpatient App is working towards creating a simplified system that encompasses occupational health aspects, which total to be over twenty items for a single person. It keeps the elements up to date before deployment and cuts down the workload for medical personnel.
Occupational Health (OH) involves tracking the safety and health impact of physical tasks and on-site operations at any military installation. The DoD lacks a modern solution for monitoring and communicating the risks of these operations, which is a major liability for OSHA and related requirements. The OHE System will gather and analyze measurable job site risk factors, track potential risk areas, and then notify, report, and schedule formal updates. Tracking these details involves multiple checklists by job function plus 5 different databases and 2 networks. By automating the process and enabling real-time notifications, this system can literally save thousands of man-hours in efficiency and prevent extensive long-term injury.
DAF lacks a modern solution for monitoring and communicating medical readiness and occupational health workflows. All parts of a member’s IMR, including occupational health (which can encompass over 20 separate items), must be up to date prior to deploying. Communicating, scheduling, and tracking these myriad components in collaboration with members, unit commanders and supervisors is a never-ending task for medical personnel, who currently must cross-reference 5 different databases and 2 networks to provide this information.
Furthermore, several bases are required by federal law to oversee the occupational health of AD members and on-base civilians. Creating an application to gather and analyze measurable job site risk factors, track potential risk areas, and then coordinate scheduling and communication of risk testing would directly help keep employees safe on the job and prevent long-term injury/illness that would require substantial government payouts.
The Administrator Dashboard is a tool for OHWO administrators, such as Public Health officials, to manage OHE (Occupational Health Exams) requirements for individual shops. These requirements will update for all members within those shops and become due at the member’s next OHE. OHWO sends reminders to workers who are due for an OHE and prompts them to schedule necessary appointments with Public Health through the app. All OHE requirements are auto-populated into a single checklist for the worker, and necessary pre-appointment forms are listed and reminders are sent at intervals if they have not been completed.
