Homeland Security Selects Cloud-Based EHR For Detention Facilities
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Homeland Security selects eClinicalWorks to provide electronic health record platform for its 23 detention centers.
Massachusetts-based eClinicalWorks has been chosen by Homeland Security to implement its cloud-based EHR Platform for 200,000 patients at 23 detention facilities across the country overseen by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The EHRS will be used by 1,000 medical professionals with the ICE Health Service Corps. at facilities that aren’t quite hospitals but often involve longer-term primary care.
The contract, which runs through 2019, is worth about $4.8 million, according to the Federal Business Opportunities, and provides a more cost-effective EHR system than ICE could develop independently. ICE had spent $12 million on an EHR system but it determined use of eClinicalWorks cloud-based EHRs would be cheaper and require fewer man-hours to learn a new system.
"ICE has a frequent need to send medical information across different locations, which is cumbersome when each site has its own system," said Capt. Deanna Gephart, deputy assistant director of operations for ICE Health Service Corps, in a press statement. "The Department has standardized on an EHR system that allows it to seamlessly share information. eClinicalWorks has been working with ICE to rapidly deploy this solution with features that are unique to this organization.”
Girish Navani, CEO and co-founder of eClinicalWorks, said a health system like ICE is “large and complex” and requires a different set of criteria than your typical acute-care hospital. Government agencies such as ICE, which is required by law to provide healthcare to the people it’s detaining, face a unique set of regulations not typical of healthcare organizations. “I’d say it requires a pretty sophisticated management to manage something of this size,” he said.
eClinicalWorks is carving out a bit of a niche in unique healthcare environments, having worked with the New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco public health departments in implementing EHRs, Navani said. Similarly, the company designed an EHR system for jails in New York City that led to both improved health outcomes for prisoner patients but also better human rights, according to a study in Health and Human Rights Journal.
Using eClinicalWorks allows ICE, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, to create a complete longitudinal record and share data between facilities. Integration with its current systems, including laboratory, radiology and pharmacy, will make the new EHRs even more beneficial, the company said.
The system also permits providers to utilize chronic and preventative care measures, including those that are unique to this setting such as intake screening process flows, electronic medication administration and infirmary management.