DOD neglected post-deployment e-record keeping
By Peter Buxbaum
Friday, November 20, 2009
A key electronic record used to monitor the post-deployment health of members of the armed services is being underused, according to the Government Accountability Office.
In a report released on November 19, the GAO found post-deployment health reassessments (PDHRA) lacking for a substantial percentage of the 319,000 service members who returned from Iraq and Afghanistan between January 1, 2007, and May 31, 2008.
Department of Defense policy requires that the military services electronically submit PDHRA questionnaires to DoD’s central health record repository. The questionnaires are supposed to be completed 90 to 180 days after warfighters return from deployment.
"DOD established the PDHRA program to identify and address service members’ health concerns that emerge over time following deployments," the report noted.
The GAO's conclusions were based on two queries of DoD's repository in 2009. The first, in April, showed that 77 percent of returning service members had questionnaires in the central repository, leaving 74,000 service members without questionnaires. In September, another GAO query found that DoD’s central repository was still missing PDHRA questionnaires for 72,000 service members.
The problem is apparently most acute with respect to reserve service members.
The GAO found DoD's oversight over Logistics Health, Inc., the contractor that administers the PDHRA to reservists, to be lacking. Specifically, overseers did not properly document or follow up on potential problems that were identified identified in LHI's administration of the PDHRA.
This lack of clear documentation, the GAO concluded, prevented DoD from addressing and resolving potential problems related to the administration of the PDHRA.
