The Indian Health Service (IHS) https://www.ihs.gov and the HHS Office of the Chief Technology Officer https://www.hhs.gov/cto/index.html have launched their IT Modernization Research Project.
The Indian Health Services currently uses the “Resource and Patient Management System” (RPMS) https://www.ihs.gov/RPMS to manage clinical, financial, and administrative information in the Indian Health System.
The system was developed in close partnership with the VA and has been somewhat dependent on the development of the VA’s health IT system, known as VistA. Since the VA announced their decision to replace VistA, the IHS has accelerated their efforts to re-evaluate their health IT system.
Preliminary findings show that the IHS health IT system involves a complex ecosystem of human interactions and workflows in a clinical environment unique to the 400 sites that constitute the Indian health system. IHS has a high interest in team-based care as well as a commitment to the community oriented primary care and patient-centered medical home.
The IHS is seeking input from tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations as decisions are being made on how to implement the health IT modernization strategy. The IHS plans to consult and confer openly on how to develop their new health IT strategy.
So far, the project team has:
- Completed 15 sites visits across the Indian Health System and participated in interviews and listening sessions with tribal communities
- Conducted a pilot for HIMSS at seven IHS sites
- Established a team to fully assess, understand RPMS architecture including a platform walk-through
At this time, multiple working groups are collaborating to make a final assessment.to evaluate different modernization strategies and approaches. The next step is for the multi stakeholder technical advisory committee to make final recommendations to inform key decision-makers.