Taken to Task, HHS Falls in Line

Four years after Congress directed the Health and Human Services Department to create a strategic plan for real-time electronic sharing of health information with public health authorities around the country, HHS is taking initial steps to carry out the directive.

All it took was a public scolding by the Government Accountability Office.

The 2006 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act requires the HHS secretary to work with state, local and tribal officials on a strategic plan to guide development of a national electronic information-sharing network.

The goal is to achieve "unified electronic public health situational awareness capabilities," according to the Dec. 17 GAO report.

Instead, according to the GAO, various HHS offices developed strategies for meeting their own goals and priorities. And while HHS has IT systems supporting early detection and response to public health emergencies, they were developed to support ongoing activities over the past 10 years, GAO said.

"Without the guidance and direction that would be provided by an overall strategic plan that defines requirements for establishing and evaluating the capabilities of existing and planned information systems, HHS cannot be assured that its resources are being effectively used to develop and implement systems that are able to collect, analyze, and share the information needed to fulfill requirements for an electronic nationwide public health situational awareness capability," the GAO stated in its summary.

After receiving a draft report, HHS officials agreed to develop a "complete" strategy. It will be incorporated into the Biennial Implementation Plan for the National Health Security Strategy, to be released early next year.