SITA awards R1bn e-health tender

By Leon Engelbrecht for SITA
Johannesburg, 07 Mar 2008

The State IT Agency (SITA) has awarded three consortia a tentative R1 billion 10-year contract to provide the national Department of Health (DOH) an electronic health record system, to be known as eHR.za.

SITA spokesman Elton Fortuin says the three consortia are the IBM Consortium; the Bophela Consortium, led by Siemens; and the arivia.kom-Waymark Consortium. This last grouping also includes Satyam Computer Services, of India.

Health spokeswoman Charity Bhengu confirmed the award.

"The bid document, namely Tender 504, defines an e-health record as a longitudinal collection of personal health information of a single individual, entered or accepted by health care providers and stored electronically," says Fortuin. "Access to the record must be authorised by the provider and the patient.

"The eHR.za is meant to improve health care delivery through a uniform system which will enable patient tracking regardless of where the patients present themselves," Fortuin adds.

Fortuin would not comment on the value and length of the contract, saying it was still subject to negotiation. But an industry source confirmed the deal could be for as much as a billion rand and last up to 10 years. The source added that the work must still be divided between the companies.

Phase 0, the formalisation of the requirement - is to start by late April or early May and will help pin down cost and other loose ends.

Fortuin says the decision to award the tender followed a Request for Information and a subsequent Request for Proposal issued by SITA on behalf of the health department.

"This was done to enable the department to take an informed decision with regard to the identification of a solution aligned to its objectives," he says.

The DOH short-listed three independent consortia for eHR.za in August last year. "One of the conditions to the short-listing was that the three consortiums agree to work together to provide the solution, since each member possessed distinct competencies that would be best utilised collectively to deliver the optimum solution," Fortuin says.

"The three consortiums accepted the condition of the short-listing and the tender was subsequently awarded by the department during January. The parties are currently negotiating the contract for the start up phase of the eHR.za system. This process entails aspects such as pricing and implementation timeframes, among others."