In an effort to bring an end to the multi-system method of managing the medical review and discharge processes for veterans, the Army recently convened a task force to replace those systems with a singular system, Nextgov reports. A report, released this month but finalized in January by the Army Task Force on Behavioral Health called the current method confusing, adding that it increased workloads "for all participants concerned with the [Integrated Disability Evaluation System] process."
The report actually recommends adoption of the integrated electronic health record planned by the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs as one method for speeding up the discharge process; efforts to build such a system from the ground up were nixed last month.
According to Nextgov, lack of an integrated IT system has contributed to active-duty troops being stuck in the discharge system for 386 days. Article