ACS to Perform Checkup on Military Health System

Affiliated Computer Services Inc. of Dallas has won a 9-month, $4 million contract from the Defense Department to conduct an external review of health care for its National Quality Management Program, the company said April 11.

ACS and its subcontractors, the Medstat Group of Ann Arbor, Mich., and West Virginia Medical Institute, will assess the degree of measurable improvements in the quality of the military health system. The team will:

*Conduct studies and performance measures of medical best practices.

*Assess health-plan employer data and information-set performance metrics.

*Assess and report to the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations on performance metrics.

*Support education and meetings.

The Defense Department spends millions of dollars every year on development and implementation of its health systems to include administrative data and medical record data. The objective of the NQMP is to monitor performance and improve quality of care within that military health system.

The NQMP focuses on several areas, including credentials, privileges, accreditation, malpractice, adverse actions, the National and Defense Practitioner Data Banks, the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank, medical releases and external review of care.

ACS has more than 20,000 employees and had revenue of $1.9 billion in fiscal 2000.