The U.S. Defense Department is planning to issue a requests for bids on a multibillion dollar electronic health records or HER system by the end of September. The department issued its third draft of a Request for Proposals to industry early last month, conducted a briefing for vendors later in June and received responses to the draft earlier this month. The objective of the program is to modernize DoD’s EHR system and to make records accessible to the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as to private medical providers. The goal of the planned system is to improve the quality of care from a clinical standpoint, while contributing to the seamless movement of medical records among key care providers. DoD has titled the project the (Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization Program) or DHMSM. DoD has shaped the contracting process to ensure that the project is well defined and properly managed from the start and it has sought feedback from the vendor community and other health IT experts. That accounts for the three draft RFPs, the meetings with vendors and consultations with Healthcare Organizations. This deliberative approach could help DoD avoid the pitfalls of the ill-managed Affordable Care Act launch.
