Overview
The Florida Department of Health (DOH) is the state's lead public-health agency, headquartered in Tallahassee and operating through a county health department in all 67 Florida counties. Its mission spans epidemiology and communicable-disease control, emergency preparedness and bioterrorism response, immunizations, vital records (birth/death certificates), environmental health, school health, and chronic-disease prevention for a population of 23M-plus residents plus a large visitor base.
DOH is led by the State Surgeon General (who also serves as Secretary of Health) reporting to the Governor, and employs more than 17,000 people.
For a technology seller, the relevant story is data- and records-intensive: DOH operates the Health Management System (HMS), an ONC-certified electronic health record (certified 2019, built on Microsoft Azure infrastructure) used across the county health departments, plus surveillance, vital-statistics, and prescription-drug-monitoring (E-FORCSE) systems. DOH does not run its own statewide IT procurement authority — technology buying flows through the Department of Management Services (DMS) state term contracts and the state's central IT-governance body, the Florida Digital Service (which remains housed under DMS after the 2026 legislative effort to move it into a new DIGIT division died in the Senate).
- Florida Digital Service (under DMS, State CIO Warren Sponholtz) sets enterprise IT standards and the Rule 60GG-2 security gate that sits above DOH's own buys
- DOH's Office of Information Technology / Agency CIO owns day-to-day delivery of HMS, surveillance, and vital-records systems
- County Health Systems (Deputy Secretary Mark Lander) is the natural sponsor for the 67-county EHR/HMS modernization funding
- DMS State Term Contracts + IT enterprise agreements are the fastest compliant path for catalog hardware, software, and licensing
- Complex mission systems (EHR, surveillance, data platforms) run through DOH's own ITN/RFP rather than off-the-shelf buys
Where Dell Can Play
- Anchor on the county health-department EHR / HMS modernization: position ISG infrastructure, hybrid-cloud, storage, and migration services against the proposed ~$6.6M refresh and the existing Azure-based Health Management System across 67 counties.
- Note the SB 480 / DIGIT restructuring died in the 2026 Legislature — the Florida Digital Service stays under DMS with State CIO Warren Sponholtz, so build to a stable central-IT layer above DOH's buys, and watch for a fresh restructuring push after the Jan 2027 gubernatorial transition.
- Confirm Dell's position on DMS state term contracts and IT enterprise agreements — the primary catalog path into DOH — and watch DOH's own ITN/RFP solicitations for the larger EHR and data-platform procurements.
- Lead with resilient, scalable infrastructure for surveillance, vital records, and high-volume clinical data; frame around data integration and analytics needs across the county system.
- Align security and AI offerings to the Florida Cybersecurity Standards (Rule 60GG-2, NIST-based) and HIPAA/ONC requirements given health-data sensitivity — clear these gates early for any cloud or as-a-service play.
Budget & Fiscal
DOH is a sizable program agency but not a central IT buyer — its technology dollars ride on DMS vehicles and specific appropriations rather than a large standalone IT line. Governor DeSantis signed the $117.6B FY2026-27 budget on June 29, 2026 (after ~$810M in line-item vetoes), sustaining the ~$4.1B health-care investment framed in the 'Floridians First' proposal and fully funding Medicaid/KidCare. The proposal earmarked funds to evaluate and replace the EHR/practice-management software used by the county health departments; confirm the final enacted line before forecasting, since health-IT modernization was not called out in the signing announcement. The prior FY2025-26 budget cut about 601 DOH positions (~4.5% of the workforce), tightening the operating envelope.
- A large share of DOH funding is federal and state grants tied to specific programs (immunization, emergency preparedness, HIV), which can shift with federal public-health funding decisions and create volatility independent of state general revenue.
- Statewide IT governance and most technology procurement sit outside DOH at DMS — confirm which entity owns a given system or contract before forecasting.
- The FY26-27 budget is now signed; confirm which line items (notably the county-EHR modernization) survived appropriations and the ~$810M of vetoes before forecasting.
Initiatives & Priorities
The FY26-27 budget proposal earmarks ~$6.6M to evaluate and implement new electronic health record and practice-management software across the 67 county health departments, an upgrade meant to integrate patient records and streamline operations statewide. DOH already runs the ONC-certified Health Management System (HMS) on Microsoft Azure; a refresh or replacement is the clearest near-term modernization vehicle and the natural anchor for infrastructure, migration, and data conversations.
EHR Modernization DataDOH operates statewide surveillance, vital-statistics, and prescription-drug-monitoring (E-FORCSE) systems that ingest and exchange high volumes of clinical and registry data across 67 counties. Sustained demand for resilient, scalable infrastructure, faster data ingestion/analytics, and interoperability across legacy and modern platforms.
Surveillance ResilienceLinking patient demographics, clinical reconciliation, family-health history, and exportable health information across the county system points to ongoing data-platform and analytics needs. Any AI/advanced-analytics offering must clear data-privacy and federal health-records (HIPAA/ONC) gates given the sensitivity of the data.
Data Platform AnalyticsDOH must align to the statewide Florida Cybersecurity Standards (Rule 60GG-2, F.A.C., NIST-based) administered by DMS, including access management, encryption, and incident reporting. Health-data sensitivity — underscored by the RansomHub breach of DOH's Vital Statistics system and ongoing victim notifications — keeps security posture, resilience, and asset visibility in active scope.
Cybersecurity ComplianceProcurement
Selling into DOH means navigating two layers: the agency's own competitive procurements and Florida's centralized IT-purchasing machinery. DOH buys mission-specific systems through its own RFP/ITN solicitations, but most technology goods and services flow through Department of Management Services (DMS) state term contracts and IT enterprise agreements, governed by the state's central IT body — the Florida Digital Service, which remains under DMS (led by State CIO Warren Sponholtz) after the 2026 SB 480 / DIGIT restructuring bill died in the Senate. Confirm Dell's position on the relevant DMS state term contracts before forecasting.
| Vehicle / gate | What it means for Dell |
|---|---|
| DMS State Term Contracts | Pre-competed statewide vehicles (hardware, software, IT enterprise agreements, and the Digital Security Solutions contract) that DOH and other agencies buy from — the fastest path for catalog-style infrastructure and licensing. Confirm Dell's coverage is active and correctly scoped. |
| DOH agency RFP / ITN solicitations | For complex, mission-specific systems (EHR/HMS, surveillance, data platforms) DOH runs its own competitive Invitations to Negotiate and RFPs rather than buying off the shelf — the path for the county-EHR modernization and large systems work. |
| Florida Cybersecurity Standards (Rule 60GG-2) | DMS-administered, NIST-aligned minimum security controls (access management, encryption, vulnerability management, incident reporting) that any product or cloud/as-a-service offering touching state health data must meet — clear this early. |
Spend Signals
GovSpend · as of Aug 10, 2026Dell vs. competitors (spend, payee)
Brand footprint — all channels (est.)
Higher of two conservative lenses: product-name match · manufacturer tag. Both undercount — treat as floors.
Expiring contracts (re-compete)
| Contract | Vendor | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| Netsmart FHIR Upgrade | Netsmart Technologies Inc | Dec 31, 2026 |
| IT Hosting Services | Paul Consulting Incorporated | Dec 31, 2026 |
- No open IT-relevant bids for this agency as of 2026-08-05: the prior sole-source IT platform solicitation (dueDate 2026-08-03) has closed, and none of DOH's other currently-open bids (exterior building painting, oxygen generating system, WIC food pamphlets) are IT-relevant, so openBids is omitted rather than shown empty.
- Window follows Florida's July–June fiscal year (FY2023 = Jul 2022–Jun 2023 ... FY2025 = Jul 2024–Jun 2025).
- This is the state-level DOH record (agencyId 757, Tallahassee) — a same-named Alachua County Department of Health record was excluded as a distinct county-level agency, not blended into these figures.
- "Dell" and "Brand footprint" use product-name text matching (dell, poweredge, optiplex, latitude, precision, powerstore, wyse, isilon; cisco/meraki/catalyst; hpe/proliant/aruba; lenovo/thinkpad/thinkcentre; apple/macbook/ipad). Excluded false positives: Tarkett Usa, Bjs Painting, Precision Air Systems, Mettler Toledo, Henry Schein, McKesson Medical Surgical, Bio Rad Laboratories, Fisher Scientific, Phc Corporation, Wrk Lab, Precision Refrigeration (lab/medical/home-services vendors colliding on "precision"/"latitude"); Cisco and Lenovo text-match hits were dominated by unrelated vendors (law/consulting/dental) and are omitted as unreliable.
- The top non-Dell name in the Dell text-match (Nw Regional Data Center, ~$570K) is a Florida state shared-services data center, not a commercial VAR — treat as a hosting pass-through rather than a reseller.
- LineItem.Category returned almost no data for this agency, so the "categories" breakdown is omitted rather than shown empty.
- Competitor brand figures on this page were recomputed on 2026-08-05 after the same measurement error found in the Dell totals: the earlier method summed per-keyword buckets, so a line item naming two matched terms (e.g. “HPE ProLiant” or “Apple iPad”) was counted twice. Values here come from a single de-duplicated match over the same keyword set and supersede the earlier, overstated totals.
Power Structure
| Decision-maker | Why they matter |
|---|---|
| Dr. Joseph Ladapo State Surgeon General & Secretary of Health | Heads DOH and reports to the Governor; Senate-confirmed in 2022, still in the role as of June 2026. Sets the agency's clinical and operational agenda — the top relationship for the account. Has been publicly floated for federal roles (e.g., CDC director) and faces recurring political calls to resign; with a gubernatorial transition due Jan 2027, confirm continuity before engaging. |
| Office of the Governor (Ron DeSantis) Sets DOH budget & health priorities | The Surgeon General reports to the Governor; the 'Floridians First' budget originates here (the $117.6B FY26-27 budget was signed June 29, 2026). Budget and IT-policy direction flow top-down. DeSantis is term-limited, with a new Governor taking office in Jan 2027 — expect leadership and priority shifts. |
| Deputy Secretaries (Scheppke / Dawkins / Lander) Health, Operations & County Health Systems | Dr. Kenneth Scheppke (Deputy Secretary for Health), Antonio Dawkins (Operations), and Mark Lander (County Health Systems) run DOH's operational and county-facing lines below the Surgeon General — the County Health Systems seat is the natural sponsor for the 67-county EHR/HMS modernization. Confirmed on the DOH leadership roster as of June 2026. |
| DOH Office of Information Technology / Agency CIO Mission health-IT, HMS & data systems | Owns DOH's mission-specific IT, the Health Management System (HMS), surveillance, and vital-records platforms. The primary technical relationship for the EHR/HMS modernization — verify the current officeholder. |
| DOH Information Security / ISA Agency information security | Runs DOH's security program and Information Security Administrator function, aligned to the statewide Florida Cybersecurity Standards (Rule 60GG-2) and HIPAA — the gate for any offering touching health data. |
| Warren Sponholtz — Florida State CIO (Florida Digital Service) Statewide IT governance & procurement | Central IT authority for standards, enterprise contracts, and cybersecurity; leads the Florida Digital Service, which remains under DMS after the 2026 SB 480 / DIGIT restructuring bill died in the Senate (no move to the Governor's office occurred). Sponholtz has led statewide IT since Aug 2024 and testified before Congress in May 2026 — a stable central-IT relationship above DOH's technology buys. |
News & Signals
Sources
- Florida Department of Health — Health Management System (HMS)
- Florida Department of Health — State Surgeon General
- Florida DOH — Governor commits $4.1B in 'Floridians First' budget (Dec 2025)
- WUSF — DeSantis' 2026-27 budget proposal includes $4.1B for health care (Dec 2025)
- Miami Times — Budget conference slashes 600 state Health Department positions
- Executive Office of the Governor — DeSantis signs FY2026-27 budget (June 29, 2026)
- Florida Senate — SB 480 (2026): 'Died on Calendar' March 13, 2026
- GovTech — Lawmakers Propose Another Restructuring of Florida IT (SB 480 / DIGIT)
- GovTech — Warren Sponholtz Named Florida's State CIO (Florida Digital Service)
- Florida Department of Health — Leadership roster (Surgeon General & Deputy Secretaries)
- Florida DMS — State Term Contracts / Digital Security Solutions
- Wikipedia — Florida Department of Health (role, 67 counties, 17,000+ staff)