Background on VA RFP
Connected Health (CH) is about extending the reach of the health care system beyond the traditional brick and mortar walls and empowering patients to assume a greater role for managing their own health. Access to care and an exceptional Veteran experience are listed as the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) top priorities. VA CH initiative is aligning virtual care technologies to create a seamless, unified experience for Veterans by:
• Identifying patient needs to drive the next generation of tools.
• Translating Veteran needs to information and services.
• Developing Health Information Technology (IT) solutions to meet Veteran needs (e.g. reminders, secure email, and video visits)
• Tailoring across platforms to optimize reach (e.g. smart phone, feature phone, web and Veterans Point of Service Kiosk Tablets)
The Veterans Point of Service (VPS) program office is responsible for managing the current VA Point of Service Initiative, known as VetLink, and the future replacement patient kiosk Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solution. VPS under the Office of Veterans Access to Care completed national deployment of ≈ 6,300 vKiosk devices to approximately 161 VA Medical Centers (VAMC) and their Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) nationwide in 2014. The legacy vKiosk devices have met the end of their device life-cycle. This effort is not a 1:1 refresh of all the currently deployed vKiosk devices, only 4,200 patient tablet kiosk units tablets will be purchased. Currently branded vKiosks and the Government- off-the-shelf (GOTS) VetLink proprietary software are provided by Vecna Technologies, Inc.
VA strives to provide high quality, effective, and efficient clinical and business capabilities, along with IT services to those persons who are responsible for providing care to the Veterans at the point-of-care. In addition, VA strives to provide high quality health care to Veterans throughout all points of their experience in an effective, timely, and compassionate manner. VA depends on a strong business backing, information management and IT systems to meet mission goals
In 2020 VA is seeking a Contractor to demonstrate feasibility of a replacement self- service tablet patient check-in solution designed especially for the healthcare industry. VHA is seeking a viable solution that can be easily transferred from one commercial vendor to another.
Subsequent, national roll-out to all VA health care facilities will only occur following the acceptable completion of Pilot 1 at Spokane, Washington (henceforth referred to as Spokane) and Pilot 2 at Columbus, Ohio (henceforth referred to as Columbus) followed by the completion of two acceptable small phased approach deployments in VISN 20 and in VISN 10. While the national deployment schedule isn’t defined, it is expected that national deployments will move through a phased roll-out, VISN by VISN over an estimated 12 to 18-month period.
VHA envisions an advanced level of interoperability with tablets and/or mobile apps that will allow Veterans to conveniently transact with the Federal Government.
Editor Notes: stimated units is 4,200