USS Frank Cable Upgrades Medical Department

The submarine tender USS Frank Cable (AS 40) upgraded its medical department’s patient care medical records system from a local-only paper medical record system to the Theater Medical Information Program (TMIP) system, March 11.

TMIP allows Frank Cable’s medical department to communicate their crew member’s medical encounters to the DOD’s electronic medical record system called AHLTA, the current electronic medical record storage system that communicates with all military treatment facilities worldwide and is an information source for the Veteran Administration’s medical system.

This is a first in that Guam operational platforms can now share medical encounters with Naval Hospital Guam and all other military medical facilities, thus providing better care for all military members.

“The software tracks patient encounters more efficiently than other systems. This system makes it possible to track your progress fleet-wide,” said Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Sharron Tate, Frank Cable’s petty officer in charge of training for the TMIP system.

Using TMIP can also act as a safeguard if something happens to a patient’s medical record.

“Even if your paper medical record is lost, this system will retain the data about all previous visits,” said Tate. “This will streamline medical treatment and make treatment information more accessible to other military providers.”

Patients are not the only ones reaping the benefits of having this program installed on Frank Cable.

“Our staff will greatly benefit from utilizing the TMIP program by allowing us to use the same program that other military hospitals and operational units are currently using,” said Tate. “We all can communicate on the same system allowing for maximum treatment services for all of our armed forces.”

Frank Cable also recently established a link into AHLTA as an actual clinic, with assistance from Naval Hospital Guam. This capability is used while in port. The next planned phase of bringing the electronic medical record systems to the waterfront, now that Frank Cable was able to demonstrate operational success, will be to establish both AHLTA and TMIP clinics for all associated platforms with medical assets.

Frank Cable, forward-deployed to the island of Guam, conducts maintenance and support of submarines and surface vessels deployed in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility.

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Press Release, March 16, 2014, 2014; Image: Wikimedia