KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa, Japan -- Vice Adm. Raquel Bono, Defense Health Agency director, visited military treatment facilities throughout Okinawa, Aug. 14-17.

“We’re here primarily to meet with the commanders who are running the MTFs in the Pacific area, and particularly, to ensure they know about the support the DHA can give them,” said Bono. “We’re here to make sure [the patients] get their healthcare and medical needs met.”

While here, Bono was the Keynote speaker at the MTF Commanders and Stakeholder Forum held at the 18th Medical Group. 

“The main purpose in bringing them together was to explore some of the opportunities that we might have in improving the delivery of care to our beneficiaries, active duty, family members and retirees,” Bono said. 

The DHA is a joint, integrated combat support agency that helps all branches of service provide a healthy and ready force for the Department of Defense. 

“The DHA stood up so we could find inefficiencies and eliminate some of the redundancy we were having in delivering our healthcare,” explained Bono.

She talked about implementation of a new electronic healthcare records system called MHS Genesis, which will come on line later this year.

“What I think is very exciting about it is our patients will be able to access their entire records and have that available so they can see [exactly] what their providers are [seeing],” said Bono.

Another feature this systems hopes to offer is to include specialty care into the records so there is continuity with every doctor a patient might have to see. 

This will also include a patient portal, where patients can communicate directly with providers. 

“It will make it easier for patients to talk to their providers,” said Bono. “It is the same system that we are hoping to deploy when our troops have to go down range so our medics and corpsmen have access to the same health records without patients having to carry a hard copy.”

As Bono’s trip was winding down, she expressed her thanks for the hospitality she received on her trip.

“It’s been great just being here and having an opportunity to visit with so many people,” said Bono. “Our beneficiaries here in the Pacific, their health and their well-being is extremely important to us at the DHA.”

Ultimately, the main goal of the DHA is to provide the best possible healthcare for the warfighters, and they are looking for ways to make that process better.

“The DHA is looking at all the ways we can best support the Army, Air Force and Navy components in delivering healthcare to beneficiaries out here,” said Bono. “I think it goes without saying that the presence the U.S. military has here in the Pacific is extremely important and whatever we can do to make sure people are [ready to go] at any time is what we are we’re aiming for.”