GAO urges DOD to address staffing gaps and health record system flaws
The Department of Defense must align staff and streamline health record processes for service-member personnel and health records, per GAO recommendations.
The Government Accountability Office issued a report finding that the Department of Defense must conduct workforce-planning analyses for each military service and assess its health-record processing framework. The five recommendations target staffing alignment for personnel-record requests and consolidation or modernization of health-record systems.
GAO's covert test of 26 records requests resulted in 18 processed requests, of which one was improperly released without redacting personally identifiable information. The services reported almost 50 improper releases affecting more than 1,000 service members during fiscal years 2021-25, and the report documents 49 breaches of personnel records.
Staffing constraints contributed to delayed processing. The Navy, for example, operated with a single employee handling Freedom of Information Act requests, expanding the average processing time from 1.6 to 55.5 days. GAO noted that clearer staffing metrics would help DOD reduce delays, limit improper disclosures, and lower litigation exposure.
On the health side, the Defense Health Agency relies on multiple legacy electronic health-record systems, creating complex workflows for identifying, reviewing, and redacting records. Officials described the redaction step as especially cumbersome for large or scanned documents. GAO recommends that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs incorporate an assessment of the current framework into its health-informatics study to identify consolidation or artificial-intelligence opportunities.
The Department of Defense has indicated general concurrence with the recommendations, but no specific actions have been confirmed. GAO will update the status of each recommendation as DOD reports its implementation steps.
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