A request for information (RFI) by the South African Department of Health for bids to establish a nationwide electronic health record system will close on Friday.
The State IT Agency (SITA), which extended the RFI on behalf of the health department, has urged the industry to propose a solution for a seamless view of patient information across provinces.
"This RFI will be used to short-list vendors and consortia who will then be asked for concrete proposals that would lead to formal negotiated contracts. Innovative procurement proposals are invited and will be assessed for long-term sustainability and appropriate local skills development," SITA says in the tender document.
The biometrics-based project involves the establishment of a central "infomediary", which collects and references key medical information on behalf of patients, says Len Klopper, MD of Electronic Patient Records, which is participating in the RFI.
The project, he explains, will allow for patient identification using fingerprints, and links patient data in various healthcare institutions. Until now government health facilities` electronic systems have had very little communication with each other, with no cross-province communication.
This means patients were tied to a single point of care, as their medical records could not be accessed at a different facility, Klopper says.
Patient information is communicated using HL7, an international American National Standards Institute-accredited protocol adopted as a standard by the South African Department of Health. The secure data is accessed with the patient`s express consent and this is controlled through the use of biometrics, which also controls user login and access levels, he says.
Electronic Patient Records supplied the software for a pilot electronic health record project recently conducted at state hospitals in the Northern Cape, Western Cape and Free State.
Meanwhile, SITA has said that companies` proposed solutions should take into consideration an electronic patient record for all citizens, that the electronic record must be able to be updated and read at all health facilities, and that it should be able to track patients across the different levels of care and across the provinces.
Updated information on the electronic record must also be updated to a national master patient index/central data repository that will house these electronic health records and the solution must integrate the existing provincial patient information systems.
Klopper believes Electronic Patient Records is the only fully South African company that will participate in the tender, but expects competition from international groups.
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