Dive Brief:
- Rather than issue its own contract, the Coast Guard will join DoD's rollout of Cerner's MHS Genesis EHR. The same course is being considered by the Department of Veteran's Affairs.
- The Coast Guard has been operating with pen and paper since terminating a failed EHR contract with Epic nearly three years ago.
- A determination on added cost will be made once the letter of intent closes, but the period of performance will remain the same.
Dive Insight:
The Coast Guard has attempted to partner with other companies on EHRs before, most notably in 2010 when the agency agreed to join the State Department in rolling out Epic's Integrated Health Information System. That project was terminated in 2015 after failing to meet requirements. The agency has been using paper records ever since.
The Coast Guard hopes to benefit from a single standard solution that would "ensure that every military beneficiary and retiree has access to a single, unified Electronic Health Record," according to the letter of intent issued by the DoD.
The letter of intent seeks to "issue a sole-source modification" to the DoD's original 2015 contract procured by Leidos to integrate, configure, test, deploy and manage Cerner's MHS Genesis. The 10-year, $4.3 billion contract "will be updated to accommodate the additional services and capabilities" required by potentially bringing in the Coast Guard and the VA.
While former VA Secretary David Shulkin's ouster has put the VA contract on hold, Shulkin told lawmakers last year it will take 18 months to launch the new Cerner system once the contract is finalized and up to eight years to fully transition from that agency's homegrown system.
While the Coast Guard rollout has no timeline, it is expected to take less time than that of the DoD, which has experienced some difficulties earlier this year piloting the records system at four military hospitals.