The project in question is the Electronic Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (ePOLST) Registry. Currently, people with “serious illnesses or advanced frailty” fill out the state’s POLST form to state their medical choices in an emergency or at end of life — somewhat similar to an advance directive.
In most of the state, this is done with paper; ePOLST would establish an online system for submitting that information.
In an HHS Budget Change Proposal (BCP), two of the agency’s departments — the Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) and the Office of Technology and Solutions Integration (OTSI) — laid out plans to release the solicitation for the project in September.
According to the BCP, which was submitted in May, OTSI and EMSA requested a $6.6 million reappropriation to continue previous work on the project. Of that amount, $3.8 million was requested for a solution provider contract and $1.4 million was requested for external consulting.
The project has been at least nine years in the making. In 2015, legislation directed EMSA to establish ePOLST, which was followed by a pilot project with financial support from the California Health Care Foundation beginning in 2016. That pilot project was conducted with Stella Technology in San Diego and Vynca in Contra Costa County.
Then in 2021, Assembly Bill 133 allocated $10 million for the project. Ever since then, EMSA and OTSI have been working toward a procurement.
In October 2022, OTSI released a request for information related to the project. According to the RFI, the solution must:
- Comply with AB133
- Allow for web-based form submission
- Give medical and emergency personnel real-time access to the most recent version of an individual’s POLST form
- Ensure the accuracy, completeness and current status of each POLST form
- Seek to remove barriers to use for all eligible patients
