Description
RECOVERY ACT PROJECT: THIS NOTICE IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. THIS OPPORTUNITY IS AVAILABLE TO GSA SCHEDULE HOLDERS. SEE E-BUY RFQ # 489403 FOR THE SOLICITATION PACKAGE. The Department of Interior (DOI), National Business Center (NBC), Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD), Herndon Office on the behalf of the Indian Health Service (IHS) is soliciting qualified General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule 70 firms to submit responses to a Request for Quotation (RFQ) to perform the following types of activities related to software deployment and operational implementation: project management, deployment, implementation and configuration of code sets, identifying and manual mapping of unmapped tests, configuration of an interface for testing, connectivity testing, quality assurance scanning, and technical training and end user support for designated software for the IHS Laboratory Information System Interoperability Standardization for Meaningful Use in accordance with the below requirement background. IHS Laboratory Information System Interoperability Standardization for Meaningful Use Background.The IHS is the principal federal healthcare provider and health advocate for Indian people, and provides a comprehensive health services delivery system for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs). The role of the IHS Office of Information Technology is to manage all technology elements for the IHS, including telecommunications, network, security, data warehouse, and Resource and Patient Management System (RPMS) development, deployment, and support. The IHS has long been a pioneer in using computer technology to capture clinical and public health data. Initial development of the IHS electronic medical record, the RPMS, began nearly 30 years ago, and many facilities have access to decades of personal health information and epidemiological data on local populations. The IHS RPMS is a distributed electronic information system designed to enhance the patient reporting capabilities of IHS healthcare facilities throughout the United States and to provide high-quality healthcare by offering accurate, timely, and comprehensive clinical and administrative information to local healthcare providers and program managers. RPMS includes clinical, administrative, and financial information on patients and resources integrated into a suite of over 60 software applications. The clinical point-of-care graphical user interface, RPMS Electronic Health Record (EHR), was released in 2004 and has been implemented throughout all IHS facilities and many Tribal and Urban programs. One of the primary goals of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 is to promote the adoption of interoperable electronic health records (EHRs) and subsequently develop a national health information network to securely exchange data. "Meaningful Use" is a term for a recent Federal initiative called the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act that is included in the ARRA of 2009. This initiative is intended to facilitate the appropriate use and exchange of health information technology by providing guidelines on how EHRs should be used by health care providers and hospitals to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of the health care system. On July 13, 2010 the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) issued a Final Rule that defined the new certification criteria EHRs must meet in order to be certified and support Stage 1 Meaningful Use. Also on this day the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Final Rule that defined the requirements for achieving MU of a certified EHR and established incentive programs beginning in 2011 for eligible providers and hospitals that achieve MU of certified EHRs. The requirements for achieving MU are to have a certified EHR and to demonstrate that it is being used to meet the criteria for interoperability, improving patient safety and providing quality clinical and population health care services. As defined by CMS, it will use two types of performance measures to determine if MU has been achieved: health information technology (IT) functionality measures and clinical quality measures. Both ONC and CMS will issue further rulemakings in the future that will establish requirements for Stages 2 (2013-2014) and 3 (2015+) of MU. Meaningful use will happen in three stages: Stage 1 applies to 2011-2012, Stage 2 applies to 2013-2014 and Stage 3 applies 2015 and thereafter. This RFQ is for Stage 1 only. RPMS will be certified for Meaningful Use in both ambulatory and inpatient settings and all sites within the IHS will need to demonstrate interoperability with external systems. The RPMS Reference Laboratory Interface (RLI) enables IHS facilities to electronically order laboratory tests and to electronically receive laboratory test results over a secure connection. At present only the bidirectional RLI has the features required to qualify for Meaningful Use (MU), so all facilities seeking MU incentives will need to have the bidirectional RLI implemented along with the RPMS EHR if they have not already. The published criteria for EHR Certification and Meaningful Use include laboratory interoperability and data standardization requirements - specifically the ability to order lab tests electronically, import test results from reference laboratories, and the use of the Logical Observation Identifier Names and Codes (LOINC) and Unified Code for Units of Measure (UCUM) code sets. All sites seeking Meaningful Use will need to implement the UCUM patch and conduct UCUM mapping of locally defined units of measure. The objective of this task is to ensure that all IHS, Tribal and Urban health care facilities within the IHS network are able to meet the laboratory interoperability and data standardization requirements for Meaningful Use. This interoperability project will help to improve the quality of care for American Indians, which can be achieved through obtaining an overall view of the patients medical history that will:" Increase patient safety" Reduce medical errors/adverse events" Enhance decision-making" Increase efficiency & effectivenessAdditionally, IHS will be able to use the vast amount of collected data more effectively. If you are qualified and interested in competing for this effort, you may participate by submitting a response to the GSA E-Buy Request for Quotation as posted on the GSA E-Buy system (See E-Buy RFQ # 489403). E-mailed responses will not be honored.