Vangent has been awarded a $3.3 million contract with the Indian Health Service (IHS) to support meaningful use interoperability deployment. Its Health Information Exchange Open Source (HIEOS) technology will help IHS meet requirements for EHR certification.
The IHS, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 1.9 million Native Americans and Alaskan Natives who belong to more than 500 federally recognized tribes in 35 states.
For the past 12 years, Vangent has supported IHS on various health IT projects including population health management, electronic health record system integration, clinical messaging and interoperability.
Vangent and its partner, Carbondale, Co.-based Orchestrate Healthcare, will plan, implement and support the national deployment of the IHS Health Information Exchange (HIE), Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI) and Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) capability. As a central part of this effort, Vangent's HIEOS open source software will be used to enable connectivity between IHS facilities and the NHIN.
The HIE, EMPI and NHIN capability, currently in IHS beta testing, will be implemented within 11 IHS regions (Aberdeen, Albuquerque, Bemidji, Billings, California, Nashville, Navajo, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Portland and Tucson) supporting more than 250 IHS facilities.
The project is designed to improve the quality of care for Native Americans and Alaskan Natives by obtaining an overall view of patient medical record history that will:
- Increase patient safety
- Reduce medical errors and adverse events
- Enhance decision making
- Increase efficiency and effectiveness
"Vangent is proud to continue working with the Indian Health Service to help meet the meaningful use requirements that will result in improved healthcare for Native Americans and Alaskan Natives across the country," said Kerry Weems, senior vice president and general manager of Vangent's Health Solutions Division.
