The U.S. State Department has issued a request for information for project management support services as it looks to deploy a commercial off-the-shelf ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) at U.S. diplomatic missions worldwide.
The Department of State’s request, issued by the Office of Medical Services (MED), was posted June 3 and gives June 16th as a deadline.
The Department of State's MED is requesting information from vendors about their specific capabilities as it relates to project management support services through all phases of the EHR project life cycle, including initiation and planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, training, implementation, go-live support and close out of the EHR system. And the RFI specifically asks for vendors’ relevant experience in deploying an EHR cloud computing solution.
According to the request, the MED manages a worldwide health care network providing medical services for employees and their families serving abroad with the State Department and other associated Foreign Affairs agencies. MED is comprised of a central office located in Washington DC (MED Washington) and Health Units (HUs) located at over 200 diplomatic missions in approximately 170 countries.
The State Department has a staff comprised of physicians, psychiatrists, nurses, social worker and medical laboratory scientist working in Washington, DC and in health units in U.S. embassies and consulates around the world to provide primary medical care and support to over 60,000 Foreign Service and other U.S. government personnel and their families. “Overall, MED's practice environment is relatively low volume and low acuity. MED does not provide in-patient care, does not currently limit its providers to a formulary, and does not bill for its services,” the RFI stated.
Currently, the MED's use of information technology includes deployment of an electronic medical record (EMR) system “in limited locations for the adjudication of medical clearances for personnel being assigned abroad.” The State Department also has implemented electronic prescribing, and has a robust system for managing scanned medical documents. “Telemedicine is also widely used to support MED's overseas operations,” the agency stated in the RFI.
