In a multiphase solicitation released May 4, the California Department of State Hospitals (DSH) is seeking a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant (HIPAA), commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) medical electronic health record solution. The California Department of Technology (CDT) is conducting the procurement on behalf of DSH, the document said. According to the solicitation, the solution must have “patient registration, pharmacy operations, billing systems, and the delivery of services in primary medical, psychiatric, and nursing care.” Among the takeaways:
- DSH, the nation’s largest inpatient mental health hospital system, has an “average daily census of 6,000 patients and treats an average of 11,000 per year.” Across five hospitals and its headquarters, the department employs about 12,000 people. Four of its hospitals are accredited by The Joint Commission and all five are licensed by the California Department of Public Health as acute psychiatric hospitals, with two operating skilled nursing facility beds. Admitted patients are “mandated for treatment by a criminal or civil court judge.” The contractor chosen must deliver an “integrated, contractor-hosted COTS solution” and must provide “licensing and the services required to support, configure, implement and train DSH staff at each of the five state hospitals and headquarters.”
- DSH facilities now rely on an “older, sometimes error-prone enterprise solution” which “has surpassed its original uses and could pose risks to continued efficiency, improvement of patient safety, and ability to recruit and retain staff.” DSH hospital pharmacies now use separate, non-integrated software to validate prescriptions and for billing and inventory tracking — but pharmacy processes are “based on a mainframe system that does not maintain and adapt to standards of practice and legal requirements.” Billing also goes through “numerous legacy programs [that] are not all under DSH direct control.” Primary care systems are “partial paper chart processes” combined with an existing system, and DHS-developed mental health treatment planning and documentation software. The new EHR should include computerized physician order entry, electronic medication administration record, pharmacy orders, point of care medication administration and a picture archiving communication system. The solicitation cautions that it may need “significant customization and/or new development.” Because of this, there’s a proof of concept (POC) in Phase 2 of the solicitation that’s focused on “‘differentiating’ functionality.” Seamless integration is a key goal.
- The contractor’s team must include a project director, a project manager, a clinical lead, a financial lead, a technical lead, an interfaces and data conversion lead, and a testing lead. Among the contractor’s responsibilities, the team must help DSH staff do a “data analysis of existing healthcare processes” and offer advice on cataloging, data cleansing and migration. The contractor must also develop a data migration plan and provide services and infrastructure that comply with State Administrative Manual and National Institute of Standards and Technology standards.
- Responses to the procurement’s first phase are due by 4 p.m. July 21 and will be evaluated July 24-Aug. 18. Bidder COTS demonstrations will be done Aug. 21-Aug. 24 and bidders will be notified Sept. 11 whether they qualified to move on to the procurement’s second phase POC. POC development will be Sept. 18-Dec. 18 with POC evaluations Dec. 19-22 and Phase 2 responses due by 4 p.m. Jan. 12. Phase 2 responses will be evaluated Jan. 16-Feb. 22 with invitations to negotiate (aka Phase 3) coming Feb. 23. Interviews will happen Feb. 26-March 1, with best and final offers due April 5 and contract award expected June 3. Contract start date, pending CDT approval, is July 15, 2024. Base contract term is five years with the state reserving the option of as many as five one-year extensions for a total potential term of 10 years including maintenance and operations and ongoing application hosting.
