{"id":7683,"date":"2026-01-15T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7683"},"modified":"2026-01-15T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:30:00","slug":"va-clinicians-help-improve-the-military-environmental-exposure-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7683","title":{"rendered":"VA clinicians help improve the Military Environmental Exposure Assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published:<\/strong> 2026-01-15T14:30:00+00:00. Historical source article: benefits, rules, amounts and deadlines may have changed. Check the official source for current information.<\/p>\n

Many of the improvements made to VA\u2019s Federal Electronic Health Record (EHR) have come from the technical experts who observe and optimize the system\u2019s workflows. However, some of the most impactful changes have originated with front-line clinicians\u2014those who use the system daily while caring for patients.<\/p>\n

One example is the revamping of the Military Environmental Exposure Assessment (MEEA) PowerForm with an enhancement that improves efficiency by allowing the tool to capture all necessary health information, including critical data from a Veteran\u2019s military history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Enterprise-wide change driven from the field<\/h2>\n

Physician Assistant Megan Baird and Nurse Practitioner Alyssa Musser, members of the Veterans Exposure Team \u2013 Health Outcomes Military Exposures\u00a0(VET-HOME) program, found that documenting Veteran MEEAs in the Federal EHR took significantly longer than in VA\u2019s legacy system, VistA\/CPRS, because key clinical information was not auto-populating within the PowerForm. To compensate, clinicians often resorted to copying and pasting information from multiple sources\u2014a time-consuming process that introduced risk inherent in manually transferring data between sources, such as potentially missing essential medical information. Recognizing both the inefficiency and the potential for clinical error, Baird and Musser sought help to solve this issue.<\/p>\n

The solution came via a collaborative effort by three different teams: VET-HOME, the Office of Clinical Informatics and Human Systems Integration, and VA\u2019s Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office\u2019s Ambulatory Care Solution Management team. They rebuilt the MEEA PowerForm template\u00a0to include all relevant clinical fields in a single location. The redesigned PowerForm streamlines end-user interaction and ensures that all relevant clinical data is consolidated in one note. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The team also added a military history section to the provider view, allowing documenting of a Veteran\u2019s military service and deployment history in the Federal EHR. Convenient access to this information allows VA care teams to provide high-quality care for Veterans exposed to environmental hazards associated with deployments, garrisons or military occupational duties. This new military history component is unique to the Federal EHR and\u00a0not available in VistA\/CPRS.<\/p>\n

The MEEA PowerForm redesign reduced the documentation time, eliminated the risks of manually transferring patient data between sources and standardized the depth of patient information and its location within the health record.<\/p>\n

Fueling data-driven research<\/h2>\n

The new PowerForm had another unexpected benefit: It enabled the aggregation and de-identification of clinical data for research purposes. This structured data supports studies on military environmental exposures and related health conditions, advancing evidence-based care for Veterans.<\/p>\n

Rapid development through collaboration<\/h2>\n

Through close collaboration, the teams designed, iterated on and delivered the new MEEA PowerForm in just eight weeks.<\/p>\n

Feedback from the field has been overwhelmingly positive. Clinicians report faster documentation times compared to the legacy system and improved thoroughness of captured information, contributing to better patient care.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. Donna Coffman, a physician with VET-HOME, \u201cThe new template is a dramatic improvement over the prior [Federal EHR] note template in that all the information you need is automatically embedded\u2026 I love the new feature to add the military dates\u2026 I had assumed it would be hard to improve on [the VistA\/CPRS template], but this version is even easier to use because I don\u2019t have to go hunting for information on old test results, and I don\u2019t have to redo things that have been thoroughly reviewed in the recent past, such as family history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Edward Post, co-chair of the VHA Ambulatory Tier 1 SME Team, feels this kind of feedback is exactly why his team is guided by end-user engagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis effort is a great example of meeting both the challenge and the opportunity for standardization that EHRM represents for VA,\u201d he said. \u201cOur partners in VET-HOME brought their vision of \u2018what\u2019 was needed (a more efficient way of getting their clinical work done) and collaborated with the project solution team who brought the \u2018how\u2019 of the Federal EHR system.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information and resources, visit the EHRM website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

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Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a>. Its Veterans is an independent publication and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new enhancement to the Military Environmental Exposure Assessment PowerForm improves efficiency to the Federal Electronic Health Record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-veterans-health-care"],"yoast_head":"\nVA clinicians help improve the Military Environmental Exposure Assessment - Its Veterans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new enhancement to the Military Environmental Exposure Assessment PowerForm improves efficiency to the Federal Electronic Health Record.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/itsveterans.com\/?p=7683\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VA clinicians help improve the Military Environmental Exposure Assessment - 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