The Homeland Security Department plans to acquire an electronic health record system to improve the quality and efficiency of its health care for illegal aliens and other foreign fugitives detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

DHS clinicians and staff at 22 locations will use the electronic health record (EHR) to replace the current manual and stand-alone automated systems.

[See also: VA, citing taxpayer savings, seeks open source EHR.]

DHS is gauging vendor expertise to deploy a comprehensive system for patient operations, reporting and statistical analysis within a correctional environment, according to a request for information announcement in Federal Business Opportunities.

The agency anticipates awarding a contract in September to deploy the EHR system in fiscal 2012 as part of a five-year contract.

The potential vendor’s system must be certified by an organization authorized by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT as meeting the functions for meaningful use requirements. Those features include being able to exchange patient records using standard summary care and message formats when detainees move between facilities.

[Related: ONC's draft Federal Health IT Plan: Realistic in a reasonable timeframe?]

The system should also be able to perform detainee intake screening, scheduling, master medication list management and clinical decision support, according to the notice.

Last year, DHS published an announcement for such a system but ran into delays in the solicitation process, so it released another request for information, April 6 with responses due April 25.

This article was originally posted at http://govhealthit.com/news/homeland-security-agency-plans-ehr-detainees