Project Planning

Request for Certification and Release of Funds Form

All Certified Projects Must Follow NM State Policies and Procurement Code

Project Name

/ Health Emergency Management (HEM) Systems
Project Number / Date / 04/28/10
Lead Agency / Department of Health / Agency Code / 665
Other Agencies / None / Project Phase / Planning

Executive Sponsor

/ Karen Armitage, MD
Project Manager / Darshana Kanabar
Agency Head / Alfredo Vigil, MD
Agency CIO/IT LEAD / Robert Mayer
Project Description (Provide a brief description and purpose for this project)
The Bureau of Health Emergency Management (BHEM) utilizes IT systems to help prepare for and manage health emergencies within the State of New Mexico in conjunction with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR).
For example, the National Hospital Available Beds for Emergencies and Disasters (HAvBED) system is currently in use for the H1N1 Pandemic to collect hospital bed information and hospital occupancy. The Emergency Systems for the Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR VHP) is also in use for clinics that need volunteers during the pandemic. The Health Alert Network (HAN) is being used for notifications of health emergencies.
The above mentioned systems are three of the four included in the procurement and implementation scope of this project. All four systems are identified below.
1.  National Hospital Available Beds for Emergencies and Disasters (HAvBED): Each State is required to develop and maintain an electronic bed polling system for providers, and decision makers to understand acute hospital and alternative care sites’ bed availabilities in “real time” on a regional and national basis.
2.  Emergency Systems for the Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR VHP): Each State is required to develop an electronic registration system for recording and managing volunteer information based on the data definitions presented in the Interim ESAR-VHP Technical and Policy Guidelines, Standards and Definitions (Guidelines).
3.  Patient Tracking: Each State will be required to develop an electronic patient tracking system to track the location of a patient through the healthcare system from admission to discharge or transfer to another facility on a regional or national basis.
4.  Health Alert Network (HAN): The purpose of the New Mexico HAN is to enable public health practitioners to prepare for and respond to natural disasters, acts of terror, infectious disease outbreaks, or other public health threats and emergencies, by providing secure and redundant methods to rapidly communicate critical emergency or emergent situation information to the appropriate key providers in the public health arena. Therefore, its primary design principles are to ensure survivability and continuous operations in the face of those extreme circumstances, and to do so in full compliance with the Public Health Information Network (PHIN) requirements established by CDC.
In addition to assisting the preparation for and management of health emergencies within the State of New Mexico, the information provided by these four systems is required for continued funding from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Planned Start Date / November 1, 2009 / Planned End Date / January 31, 2011
Amount Requested this Certification / $ 15,000
Amount Previously Certified / $ 0
Remaining Appropriation not Certified / $ 305,000
Total Appropriated Amount (include any new funds) / $320,000

Certification History (Include any previous project or phase certifications)

Date
/ Amount / Funding Source(s) (use specific citations to laws, grants, etc.)
October 30, 2009 / $ 0
Proposed Certification Schedule for Current Fiscal Year (agency to complete for all phases)
Phases / Amount Requested /

Major Deliverable(s) / Performance Measure(s)

/

Due Dates

Initiation:
/ 0 / Requirements definition; RFP development; Project Management Plan development; IV&V proposals. / 10/28/09
Planning:
/ $ 15,000 / RFP issuance; Evaluation of proposals; Selection of vendor; Budget development; Executed IV&V Contract. / 04/10
Implementation: / $305,000 / Develop detailed statement of work; Execute contract to achieve requirements; Implement chosen COTS solutions.
Performance Measures-
·  System efficiently supports up to 100 concurrent users and up to 100,000 individual records.
·  System provides for full operational capabilities 24/7/365 to support New Mexico’s “ready state” requirement and all hazards approach to emergency preparedness, response, and recovery.
·  HAN application provides high volume, multi-channel Health Alert Network (HAN) messaging capable of reaching up to 7000 recipients in a single notification. / 07/10
Closeout: / 0 / Lessons learned, project close-out, final IV&V report / 01/11

Appropriation History (Include all Funding sources, e.g. Federal, State, County, Municipal laws or grants)

Fiscal Year
/ Amount / Funding Source(s)
FY 2011 / $240,000 / Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund: Public Health Emergency Response (PHER) Phase III – CDC-RFA-TP09-902-H1N109 grant. These FY10 funds are pending a decision on carry-over into next year: If carry-over is denied, program area intends to fund from the CDC Cooperative Agreement for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response for the upcoming year.
FY 2011 / $80,000 / Hospital Preparedness Program, ASPR 1001. New grant starts July 1, 2010. Grant number pending.
Budget
Comments: Good numbers will not be available until RFP responses come in. Costs below are estimates, based on SaaS external hosting model. Detailed budget will be created following receipt and evaluation of proposals during the RFP process.
Description
/

FY07 & Prior

/ FY08 / FY09 / FY10 / FY11
Staff - Internal
Consulting Services/
Hosting / $ 15,000
(IV&V) / $ 305,000
(IV&V and COTS implementation by vendor)
Hardware
Software
Total / $ 15,000 / $ 305,000

IT System Analysis

On this document, or as an attachment, provide a summary response, including changes, to the following IT infrastructure topics relating to this project:
·  Project’s impact on the Enterprise/DoIT infrastructure.
o  Hardware: Placement of additional servers and equipment if locally hosted; none if SaaS.
o  Network: Four web applications accessible by state and non-state users; multiple service providers for redundant paths to the Internet.
o  Communications: Multiple (at least 48) high-speed digital voice circuits. Required for HAN application.
o  Software / Applications: Four COTS applications with additional support software.
o  Hosting location:
§  Locally Hosted Option: at DoIT Data Center;
§  SaaS Option: at vendor data center(s).
·  A main issue and impact on the Enterprise/DoIT infrastructure results from the nature of the applications at the heart of this project. Three of the four systems are in production status, hosted or co-located external to the State infrastructure. These are emergency preparedness and response systems, each of which is bound by federal requirements or guidelines for both functionality and for continuity of operations through systems and network redundancies and fail-over capabilities, and through off-site disaster recovery capabilities. Implementation of a State-hosted option will require significant systems and communications infrastructure to meet federal requirements and provide the needed processing environments for production, test and development, and disaster recovery.
·  DoIT Collaboration: DoIT has been involved in recurring discussions concerning the hosting and support options in conjunction with the RFP development and review process. Collaboration will continue with procurement and the contract award, in addition to the remainder of the certification process.
·  Application Architecture Schematic:

Business Continuity Strategy

Continuity of operations through redundant infrastructure and communications capabilities, as well as disaster recovery planning for these systems, are part of the requirements and guidelines defined by the CDC and ASPR, and which have been referenced and integrated into the RFP as mandatory requirements which will be evaluated during the proposal review process.

Security Strategy (Application and Data Security Process, Plan, or Standard)

Application and data security procedures as dictated by CDC, DOH, and ASPR are included in the RFP requirements and are a component of the evaluation process.
Depending on the application, these include:
·  HIPAA/HITECH;
·  CDC/PHIN data, messaging, and directory standards, as defined:
o  Partner Communications and Alerting Functional Requirements;
·  CDC standards for security and availability, based on the Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems, SP 800-53, rev 2. Standards may be found at:
http://www.cdc.gov/phin/resources/certification/docs/phin_cert_sec_avail_assessment_tool_v1.0.doc

Independent Verification & Validation (Include Status of IV V Process)

Proposals to provide Independent Verification &Validation services for this project have been requested and received from two vendors on the state-wide price agreement for IV&V. One vendor has been selected and the scope of work defined and agreed upon.
·  IV&V project management plan;
·  Initial report including risk assessment report;
·  Two periodic reports;
·  Close-out report.

Significant Risks and Mitigation Strategy

Risk 1:

Project costs are estimates and will remain so until the RFP process is completed. Choice of system provider and determination of hosting option will have major impact on the actual costs of this initiative.

Mitigation 1:

Accept this risk until vendor, hosting option, and costs are accurately defined by the RFP evaluation and contract award. In the meantime, DOH is working with DoIT to ensure that all hosting requirements, infrastructure needs, and support requirements are well understood, and accurate costs defined.

Risk 2:

H1N1 funding that is approved for the HAN system acquisition and implementation comes with an impending time-restriction, funds must be expended by July 31, 2010.

Mitigation 2:

Program area has petitioned CDC for permission to carry-over funds. Failing that, program area will seek alternate funding, or in worst-case, remove the HAN system from the project scope.

Record Retention Policy (Describe the Agency’s records retention requirements for this project)

This will be defined during the planning phase per the NMAC codes.

Maintenance Strategy (Describe how the agency plans to maintain this project after deployment)

Program funding from ASPR and CDC PHEP grants will be made available each year to contract for ongoing application maintenance and support for each of the four systems.

Interoperability (Describe how this project interfaces with existing systems/Applications within the agency)

Two of these applications, ESAR-VHP and HAN, will interconnect to provide options for notification of selected volunteers at times of a health emergency.

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Revision: 2/14/08 Page 2