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ADP Systems: Concerns About the Acquisition Plan for DOD's Composite Health Care System

IMTEC-86-12 Published: Mar 31, 1986. Publicly Released: Mar 31, 1986.
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Highlights

As required by the Department of Defense (DOD) Authorization Act of 1986, GAO evaluated the DOD methodology and acquisition strategy for selecting and awarding Composite Health Care System (CHCS) contracts.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To ensure that the CHCS acquisition selection process identifies the true capabilities of competing vendors and results in the development of a comprehensive medical automatic data processing (ADP) system that meets user needs at a reasonable cost, the Secretary of Defense should award the CHCS EBT contract only after the deficiencies discussed in this report are addressed. Specifically, DOD should: (1) assess the risk of not including all functional requirements in EBT compared with the cost of including them; and (2) have the CHCS program systems engineering and technical assistance contractor certify that all complex CHCS functions, such as those in the nursing module, are addressed during the benchmark test.
Closed – Implemented
DOD concurred with this recommendation. It agreed to review the process used to select capabilities for inclusion in EBT to ensure that EBT includes all high-risk capabilities of CHCS and adequately tests CHCS integrated capabilities necessary to support the military medical treatment facilities (MTF).
Department of Defense To ensure that the CHCS acquisition selection process identifies the true capabilities of competing vendors and results in the development of a comprehensive medical ADP system that meets user needs at a reasonable cost, the Secretary of Defense should award the CHCS EBT contract only after the deficiencies are addressed. Specifically, DOD should: (1) analyze valid existing system change requests to determine their impact on CHCS vendor designs; (2) incorporate critical changes into the CHCS specifications being addressed during EBT; and (3) require that these changes be addressed.
Closed – Not Implemented
EBT is scheduled for completion in December 1987. System change requests will not be incorporated until after award of the operational test and evaluation contracts in March and April 1988. However, fulfillment of valid system change requests is due to be a requirement of those contracts.
Department of Defense To ensure that the CHCS acquisition selection process identifies the true capabilities of competing vendors and results in the development of a comprehensive medical ADP system that meets user needs at a reasonable cost, the Secretary of Defense should award the CHCS EBT contract only after deficiencies are addressed. Specifically, DOD should modify the CHCS request for proposals to require the winning vendor to successfully demonstrate the CHCS design in one or more military hospitals before DOD awards the full-production contract.
Closed – Not Implemented
The DOD April 1987 change in acquisition strategy effectively negates this recommendation. However, CHCS contractor designs will be demonstrated during the operational test and evaluation phase of the acquisition, scheduled to begin in March 1988.
Department of Defense To ensure that the CHCS acquisition selection process identifies the true capabilities of competing vendors and results in the development of a comprehensive medical ADP system that meets user needs at a reasonable cost, the Secretary of Defense should award the CHCS EBT contract only after deficiencies are addressed. Specifically, DOD should validate system sizing data to ensure that the data accurately reflect current needs and operating conditions found in the varying size hospitals existing within each class of medical treatment facility, and provide any necessary revisions to CHCS offerers.
Closed – Not Implemented
DOD awarded EBT contracts in September 1986 before completing action on this recommendation. However, DOD continues to refine the hospital model it uses to make system sizing conditions. Data from operational test and evaluation notes would lead to further refinements.
Department of Defense To ensure that the CHCS acquisition selection process identifies the true capabilities of competing vendors and results in the development of a comprehensive medical ADP system that meets user needs at a reasonable cost, the Secretary of Defense should award the CHCS EBT contract only after deficiencies are addressed. Specifically, DOD should: (1) make specific site information available to CHCS offerers for use in designing proposed systems and estimating site-preparation requirements and costs; and (2) require that site-preparation costs be included as part of the evaluation used to select the winning vendor.
Closed – Implemented
DOD concurred with this recommendation and has completed a survey of all CHCS facilities to provide the information needed to evaluate site limitations on hardware approaches and estimate hardware and communication configurations. DOD provided this information to the vendors after initial contract award in September 1986.

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Contract administrationDefense cost controlDefense procurementHealth care cost controlHealth care planningInformation systemsMedical information systemsVeterans hospitalsBid proposalsHospitals