The Louisiana Office of Mental Health (OMH) wants to contract with an independent consultant not associated with any particular EHR system to help procure and implement a statewide electronic behavioral health record system.
The system will need to support behavioral health standards of care and provide data for state performance monitoring and federal reporting as well as provide daily clinical decision support for service providers at the point-of-care. The system must also enable continuity of care with five state psychiatric hospitals and in acute inpatient care settings.
At the present, the state Offices of Mental Health and Addictive Disorders each operate custom- built web-based enterprise wide information management systems with some EHR components. These systems are not presently comprehensive nor are they integrated across disability areas. The consultant will need the expertise to help assess the pros and cons of building upon these existing systems.
The consultant will be responsible for doing presentations on successful EHR implementations, participate in the selection of the EHR system, developing a needs assessment on the desirable features of the EHR system, developing easy way to use system selection criteria, and participate in system demonstrations. The consultant must also be able to assist the state in writing the Request for Proposal that will be issued to obtain the EHR system according to state standards, procedures, and format.
Resumes must be submitted by January 23, 2009 and it is anticipated that OMH will contact interested contractors in February 2009. The current state of Louisiana requirements limit consulting contracts to a maximum of $50,000 per year unless acquired via an RFP. For more information, contact Randall Lemoine, PhD, at rlemoine@dhhs.la.gov or call 225-342-8605.
