Jan 18, 2013Following a request three months ago by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reevaluate its contract with Hewlett Packard's HP Enterprise Services division to implement real-time location system (RTLS) technology at its hospitals (see VA to Reassess Contract, Proposals for Nationwide RTLS Deployments), the VA has again awarded the contract to HP. The $543 million contract, awarded shortly after Jan. 1, 2013, covers the deployment of RTLS technology, including passive and active radio frequency identification tags and readers, at 152 medical centers and 1,400 ancillary facilities. Following several months of review, the VA once more selected HP this week for the Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract.
The technology is intended to improve health-care efficiency via a variety of RTLS hospital solutions. The five-year contract was initially awarded in June 2012 (see RFID News Roundup: Veterans Affairs Awards $543 Million RTLS Contract to HP to Cover All VA Hospitals, Clinics), following evaluation of RTLS technology for a separate contract at one network known as the Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 11 (see Veterans Affairs Implementing RTLS Across Seven Midwest Hospitals). VISN 11's RTLS deployments, being overseen by HP Enterprise Services, are expected to be taken live by this summer.
IBM had contested the initial national VA contract with HP in July 2012, causing the VA to order HP to halt work on the project. On Oct. 3, the GAO upheld that protest and asked the VA to reevaluate proposals received from vendors, which included HP, IBM and four other companies. The GAO also indicated that the VA might need to reopen competition to vendors.
The VA did reopen competition, according to Debbie Elgot, HP Enterprise Services' RTLS solutions portfolio manager for the U.S. public sector, resulting in HP again winning the contract. The second contract-selection process, Elgot says—which commenced in October—consisted of vendors resubmitting their proposals. "They asked us to clarify some questions," she says, but HP's proposal itself was unchanged from the first submission in 2012.
IBM could still opt to contest the VA's latest decision, says Ralph White, GAO's managing associate general counsel for procurement law. Richard Oliver, the attorney with McKenna Long & Aldridge who has been representing IBM regarding this matter, has declined to indicate whether IBM might opt to do so.
Each installation will consist of passive and active RFID tags and readers and other technology from various vendors, including CenTrak and WaveMark, for use in asset management, sterile processing, temperature and humidity tracking, and managing catheter lab consumables. In addition, the installations will utilize some RTLS technology for ER workflow, as well as the tracking of staff hand-hygiene procedures and patient movements, among other functions. All data will be managed using software provided by Intelligent InSites.
In addition to the individual RTLS solutions, Elgot says, HP will be tasked with developing a national data repository that will reside on the VA's back-end server. This repository will collect and store information related to RFID tag reads at all participating hospitals, and will be accessible by VISM members nationwide. Initially, HP is working on the development work related to this repository.
HP will not only provide RTLS solutions to the VA's medical centers, as well as ancillary clinics, offices and cemeteries, but it will also supply the technology to seven Consolidated Medical Outpatient Pharmacy facilities.
"We're just thrilled to be working with the VA on this," Elgot states. "They're leading the [health-care] industry" with the installation of RTLS solutions across all facilities.
A VA spokesperson has declined to comment for this story.
