THE HUMAN SERVICES DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDS APPROVAL OF THE ABOVE MOTION.
This item supports the Board's Value of "[A]pproaching human services collaboratively and compassionately, with special emphasis on the most vulnerable, and the Goal to "[D]eliver evidence-based services to the public, and connect customers and their family members, to sustainable support, with special emphasis on financial supports." The use of this Electronic Health Record System allows for the continued provision of valid and timely client data to the funding agency, Broward Behavioral Health Coalition, and allows Broward Addiction Recovery Center (BARC) to better serve Broward County residents.
On September 24, 2013, the Board approved Agenda Item No. 30, in the estimated amount of $2,618,385 for the five-year term (consisting of a $2,025,350 base, $38,400 in reimbursable expenses, and $554,635 for optional services). The agreement provided for the implementation of the Enterprise Business Application for the Human Services Department (HSD) to provide enterprise level data analysis and reporting, reduce paperwork, data hosting, and integrate data from various County agencies.
The first Amendment to the Agreement added a financial training class, which was at the County's option during the project phases, as needed.
HSD initially envisioned the Echo enterprise system as a replacement for many of its stand-alone systems; however, it was found infeasible to do so, primarily due to the software's inability to segregate the HIPAA designations for two of HSD divisions. Also, Broward County's security standards require that vendors providing hosting solutions have a System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type II report, assuring that an independent third-party attestation related to security control evaluations and audits. Echo Consulting Services has been unwilling to provide the required County standard SOC 2 Type II report making it imperative that the County return data from the vendor's SAAS hosting to County hosting (see Exhibit 2 - Work Authorization HSD-BARC-007). HSD has unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate with Echo Consulting Services for an overhaul of the remaining phases' business processes, updated forms, and updated funding requirements. However, after seven Contract Negotiation Meetings and two Pricing Negotiation Meetings, HSD and Echo Consulting Services remain at an impasse regarding system functionality and pricing. HSD made a business decision to retain the software as the primary behavioral health electronic health record system for BARC and seek an appropriate case management record system for direct services.
In summation, the Echo software suite has been the primary software for BARC since 2003 and is currently used as the behavioral health electronic health record for intake, assessments, clinical case management, outcome reporting, billing and fiscal reporting with support and maintenance provided by the vendor.
The approval of this item would approve the Second Amendment, extending the agreement for an additional four one-year renewal periods, eliminating phase 2 through 6, extending maintenance and support for BARC, and returning the data from the vendor to County hosting. For the continued term of the Second Amendment, Echo Consulting Services is unable to agree to the County standard requirement of ongoing compatibility with third-party software, as disclosed in the Agreement Summary.
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