Homeland Security & VistA 'Open' EHR Opportunity

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to purchase a commercial electronic health record (EHR) system to support medical care and public health services for detainees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The system will be deployed at 22 locations across the country. Details of the solicitation can be read in this Government Health IT article, and the formal request for proposal (RFP) can be found here.

This opportunity seems perfectly suited for those commercial companies providing implementation, training, and support for the highly acclaimed open source VistA EHR system, e.g. DSS, MedSphere, Vangent. The VistA system is already in use at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Variants of the system  are also used in the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), Indian Health Service (IHS), Department of Defense (DOD), and in several state government health care systems, e.g. West Virginia, Oklahoma.

Implementing a commercialized version of the standards based, open source VistA system across the entire federal health care system just makes sense. See VistA Community links on Open Health News.