Use of Automation for Dental Operations and Data Management in a Navy Recruit Population

This commentary shares a large dental clinic's use of software automation to mitigate capability gaps in the Federal Electronic Health Record and the perceived risks and benefits of this approach. The United States Navy Dental Service Treatment Record and associated resources have undergone multiple changes in the last decade. A significant milestone includes the recent elimination of most paper records in lieu of electronic systems while in garrison. At the United States Navy's sole enlisted accession point, paper record discontinuation affected a complete overhaul of legacy processes. Using readily accessible software tools, initiative to leverage automation during this transition at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Healthcare Center in North Chicago, IL, was exercised to support dental operations, readiness reporting and data management for over 40,000 Navy Recruits annually. Automated processes, with their own risks and benefits, might accommodate shortfalls in software systems' capabilities and should serve as lighted guideposts for necessary system updates, rather than the long-term solution, to FEHR capability gaps.