REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
AND RECORD OF ACTION
March 1, 2022
FROM
WILLIAM L. GILBERT, Director, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center
SUBJECT
Title
Agreement with WISE Healthcare, Inc. for eConsult and eReferral Management Support Services
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Approve Agreement with WISE Healthcare, Inc. for support and project management for eConsult and eReferral services and related interface implementation, in the amount not to exceed $3,145,500 for the period of March 1, 2022, through February 28, 2027.
(Presenter: William L. Gilbert, Director, 580-6150)
Body
COUNTY AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER GOALS & OBJECTIVES
Operate in a Fiscally-Responsible and Business-Like Manner.
Provide for the Safety, Health and Social Service Needs of County Residents.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Approval of this item will not result in the use of Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). The total not to exceed amount of $3,145,500 is funded by State Medi-Cal, Federal Medicare, private insurances, and other departmental revenues. Funding sources may change in the future pending any legislative activity related to the repeal and/or replacement of the Affordable Care Act. Adequate appropriation and revenue have been included in the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) 2021-22 budget and will be included in future recommended budgets.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Approval of this agreement will allow Wise Healthcare (Wise) to provide enhanced technical and management support of the current systems in place for electronic medical referral management (eReferrals) and electronic medical consults (eConsults). eReferrals are initiated by a primary care provider when a specialist provider needs to care for a condition beyond the scope of primary care. eConsults are medical consultations between a medical provider conducted via an electronic, web-based medium. Wise will also assist in integrating both systems into the Epic system. The Epic system does not include an electronic method for receiving incoming medical referrals from the community and does not offer a bi-directional communication method between primary care provider and specialist to help determine the need for a face to face consult. Both these needs are met with eReferrals and eConsults.
WISE has specialized expertise in eConsult technologies, processes and in leading eConsult systems, training, and workflow redesigns. WISE will provide information technology services to ARMC by providing a group of qualified staff to function as a Help Desk for all new and existing users for both the eConsult and eReferrals systems. Training is provided virtually to Inland Empire community providers 2 times per week and hands on training is provided to all new ARMC providers and users. As a teaching facility, ARMC has a new group of resident physicians that need to be trained on a yearly basis. As a Help Desk for community providers, WISE offers a staffed phone number and the technical expertise to assist Monday through Friday from 7:30am to 5:00pm. End user training for eConsult requires hands on training prior to issuing a log in for all users. The staffing and service provided by WISE is covered in the monthly service charge listed in this agreement.
A one-time implementation fee includes the integration of eConsult and eReferral with Epic. This work is part of the optimization process of Epic that will take place as soon as 6 months from Epic’s go live date of February 12, 2022. This will increase productivity and streamline procedures to process medical referrals at ARMC. WISE has worked with Riverside County - Riverside University Health System (RUHS) to integrate eConsult within Epic. The experience with RUHS to integrate eConsult with Epic will help to guide ARMC staff to complete the integration effectively. Post integration, WISE will continue to work with ARMC referral staff to streamline process and find opportunities to improve productivity.
PROCUREMENT
This is a non-competitive procurement based on the specialized credentials that WISE possesses for implementation and virtual care services for eConsult and eReferrals. County Purchasing supports this non-competitive procurement.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Bonnie Uphold, Deputy County Counsel, 387-5455) on January 31, 2022; Purchasing Department (Ariel Gill, Buyer, 777-0722) on February 3, 2022; ARMC Finance (Chen Wu, Finance and Budget Officer, 580-3165) on February 7, 2022; and County Finance and Administration (Diana Atkeson, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on February 8, 2022.