DHS Seeks e-Records Vendor

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security plans to award a contract in September for an electronic health record system to manage health care for detained foreign nationals, including undocumented immigrants, Government Health IT reports.

The integrated EHR will replace paper records and smaller, stand-alone automated systems at 22 locations around the country and headquarters, according to a department request for information (RFI) filed earlier this month in Federal Business Opportunities, a database of federal government contracting opportunities. The e-record system will support practitioners and staff at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency's Health Service Corps, DHS says.

The EHR must support standard medical intake and care, mental-health care, dental care and pharmacy interactions, according to the statement of objectives filed with the DHS request. The system must have the capacity to share information among multiple ICE sites, with state and local detention facilities, and with offsite providers of specialty medical services, among others.

Responses to the request for information are due April 25. The next likely step is for DHS to issue a request for proposal. ICE wants to begin installing the EHR system in fiscal 2012 under a five-year contract, according to Government Health IT.

The magazine says DHS initially started the process last year but ran into delays, leading to the new request for information filed April 6.