Objective
Our objective was to determine whether management effectively developed and implemented the Theater Blood Application to meet the needs of the warfighter.
Finding
The Program Executive Officer for the Defense Health Clinical Systems did not effectively develop and implement the Theater Blood Application. This occurred because the Program Executive Officer did not:
- establish policies and procedures to manage the requirements for its medical information systems;
- develop a long-term strategy to sustain a blood tracking capability in theater; and
- adequately train users as required in the Implementation Strategy and Deployment Plan.
The Program Executive Officer delivered an interim capability that improved the deployed warfighter’s ability to track the theater blood inventory. However, the capability may not align with the initial requirements identified by users, and the warfighter is at risk of operating without a tool to adequately track the theater blood inventory.
Recommendations
Among others, we recommend that the Program Executive Officer for the Defense Healthcare Management Systems coordinate with the:
- Defense Health Agency to ensure policies and procedures to manage future requirements for medical information systems are documented, reviewed, and updated as necessary;
- Defense Health Agency and Military Departments to develop a long-term strategy and not invest additional money in the continued development of the Theater Blood Application until it can determine the application’s sustainability; and
- Military Departments to develop policies and procedures for training requirements and establish and implement a program to ensure users receive initial training prior to deployment, followed by refresher training.
Management Comments and Our Response
Comments from the Program Executive Officer addressed all the specifics of the recommendations, and no further comments are required. Based on management comments, we revised Recommendation 1.
This report is a result of Project No. D2014-D000AJ-0197.000.