HHS issues RFI for health-care worker qualifications portal

The Health and Human Services Department is seeking industry information about developing a nationwide verification system to provide the department with the professional qualifications of healthcare professionals responding to a disaster or public-health emergency.

HHS plans to develop a portal to provide access to the public and private data repositories that contain the qualifications of government medical incident officials, the department said in a request for information posted yesterday on FedBizOpps.gov.

"On Sept. 11, 2001, many health-care professionals traveled to New York City to volunteer their services but were turned away because their credentials and qualifications could not be verified," HHS said.

The portal would enable HHS to quickly authenticate professional qualifications?including health-care providers' state license information, board certifications, any disciplinary actions and hospital privileges?from a variety of sources during an emergency.

The information would also be used for nonemergency situations for contingency planning and must be searchable via several key entries.

Over time, the available searchable data is expected to increase and the users would include state and local officials in addition to federal officials. Industry information is due July 15.

Mary Mosquera is a staff writer for Washington Technology's sister publication, Government Computer News.