The Homeland Security Department plans to acquire an electronic health record system to better manage healthcare services to the increasing numbers of illegal aliens and other foreign fugitives detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
The agency is expanding holding facilities and modernizing information systems, including for medical services, to accommodate mounting numbers of individuals arrested and in custody of the administrations' border security agents.
In a notice on a Web site announcing business opportunities, DHS said the HER it is looking for could be a commercial or government-developed system or a hosted service. It is needed for scheduling, screening of detainees, physician encounters, professional credentialing and exchange of medical information with other detention facilities, according to the notice.
Any system that the agency picks must be certified to meet meaningful use requirements, such as being capable of electronic prescribing, medication list management, clinical decision support and information security under the HITECH Act.
It must also interoperate with other DHS computer systems used for booking and case management, fingerprints, bed space management, medical labs and the Bureau of Prisons medical records system, the announcement said.
With an integrated record, DHS said it also hopes to improve medical notifications to immigration case managers and eliminate burdensome hand tallying for reports and medical reviews.
