Jan 12, 2012The following are news announcements made during the past week.
Veterans Affairs Issues Final RFP for RTLS to Cover All VA Hospitals, Clinics
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) division of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affair (VA) issued the final request for proposal this month for $550 million for a real-time location system (RTLS) solution. The VA's Technology Acquisition Center (TAC) plans to award an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) firm-fixed price contract. By using RTLS equipment—which may include Wi-Fi-based and other active or passive RFID tags, tags that emit ultrasound and infrared signals, and those utilizing ZigBee technology—the VA hopes to improve operations and business processes across its 21 Veteran Integrated Service Networks (VISNs). All told, the RTLS will cover 152 medical centers, 1,400 community clinics, seven Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacies (CMOPs) and a variety of non-patient facilities, such as cemeteries and offices. The VA wants to deploy a single turnkey solution throughout, with a single contractor and its partners delivering the complete solution. The proposed solution should include hardware, software, documentation and incidental services, such as training, warranty and maintenance services, and technical engineering services (TES).
Details regarding the RFP were first unveiled at a VA Industry Day event, held on Nov. 8 at the VA Technology Acquisition Center (TAC), located in Austin, Texas (see U.S. Veterans Department Announces RFP for Nationwide RTLS Solution). At that time, VA representatives discussed four specific use cases: asset management, temperature tracking, supply chain management and sterilization process flow management, all of which are designed to contribute to the agency's initiative for greater efficiency, particularly in the area of health care.
The Performance Work Statement (PWS)—published by the VA as part of the RFP—spells out several additional applications. For example, the agency wants to employ the solution to track patients from the moment they arrive to their time of discharge. The RTLS needs to be configurable so that security levels can be set based on risk. The PWS notes, for instance, that some patients (those deemed high-risk) may be confined to their rooms, while others (those considered low-risk) may have a more relaxed restriction and only be confined to a specific ward or floor. The PWS specifies that the system be capable of sending a signal to a door-management system, if available at the individual facility, to allow the enabling and disabling of locks, as well as audible alarm systems, when a particular patient has come within a defined distance of exiting the ward.
The VA also wants the system to provide nurses with patients' location information, and to monitor staff members via mapping and tracking features. The PWS requests that the RTLS be able to generate messages regarding events, and send them to external notification systems, for delivery to such devices as pagers, cell phones or in-house wireless communication devices, as well as to other computer systems. In addition, the agency is requesting that employees' tags have one or more programmable buttons enabling those workers to activate a "panic" alarm from their tag so that an alert can be issued from the RTLS to the facility's communication or security system.
Due to the project's scope and nature, vendors planning to respond to the RFP are encouraged to tour the facilities at VISN 23 sometime between Jan. 16 and Feb. 10, 2012. Additionally, companies interested in responding to the RFP may request a copy of computer-aided design (CAD) drawings for the VISN 23 location. Requests for tours and CAD drawings must be made via e-mail by Jan. 17, according to an amendment to the solicitation posted on Jan. 12. Additional information about the RFP (number VA118A-12-RP-0118) can be found at the FedBizOpps.gov Web site. Responses to the RFP are due by Mar. 6.
Colombia Container Terminal Puts RFID on Track
Cargo-management solutions provider Navis, a part of Cargotec, has announced that Sociedad Portuaria de Cartagena (SPRC), in Columbia, will implement a real-time location system (RTLS) designed to provide the South American marine terminal with real-time asset visibility, increased domain awareness and improved operational efficiency. Navis is bringing together, as part of its Navis Star Technology Alliance program, its Terminal Operating Solutions (TOS) and technology vendors to offer integrated telematics solutions for terminal-operating customers. The terminal process-automation solution, scheduled to go live in 2012, integrates Navis' SPARCS TOS solution, a container-management software system for real-time graphical planning and control of container terminals, with Zebra Technologies' WhereNet tags and locating infrastructure. The Zebra equipment, part of the company's WhereNet RTLS that supports the ISO/IEC 24730-2 standard and enables tracking in industrial and outdoor applications, tracks the locations of street trucks, utility tractor rigs (UTR) and general assets in real time, and provides that information to the SPARCS TOS. SPRC, which Navis says is the first South American terminal to deploy RTLS technology to track truck movements, wants to use the solution to track street trucks and identify queue order in the Rubber Tire Gantry (RTG) stack. The increased visibility into street truck locations will allow SPRC to optimize RTG job assignments and correctly prioritize competing gate and vessel jobs for peak efficiency and cost savings, Navis reports. SPRC already uses Navis' PrimeRoute system to automatically dispatch tractors to the optimal point of work in a yard, thereby increasing utilization and decreasing the number of vehicles required to move cargo. To increase efficiency, Navis' Automated Job Stepping Solution will be deployed to automate the events that marine-terminal operators are required to key in, thus removing the dependency on manual data entry and eliminating erroneous entries—which, Navis explains, will improve the effectiveness and accuracy of Navis PrimeRoute. The Navis Automated Job Stepping Solution works with Zebra's hardware to ultimately improve vessel productivity. Once the RTLS infrastructure is in place, Navis indicates, SPRC also plans to track additional assets, such as personnel, personal vehicles and baggage carts.
Hyatt Regency New Orleans Keys Up RFID for Convenience and Security
KABA Lodging, which provides Saflok and ILCO electronic locks, has announced that it has implemented an integrated solution of its RFID-enabled guest keycards with property elevator banks at the newly revitalized Hyatt Regency New Orleans. According to KABA Lodging, the 1,193-room convention hotel is using the RFID keycards to steer guests smoothly through its property and improve safety—only keycard holders may be admitted to guestroom floors, for the purpose of heightened security. The Saflok electronic lock system and keycards have been integrated with Schindler Elevator Corp.'s RFID-enabled Personal Occupant Requirement Terminal (PORT) technology. The PORT technology, a smart system that can learn how occupants move through a building, also serves as the management and communication system for elevators (see RFID Raises Elevator Efficiency). The integrated solution includes KABA's Saflok Quantum RFID locks, deployed with the System 6000 solution that interfaces keycards with Schindler's PORT technology. The Saflok RFID systems leverage the ZigBee standard, based on the 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 specification, and allow Web-based monitoring of electronic door locks and keys. The PORT destination-dispatch technology reads a guest's Saflok RFID keycard outside one of the eight elevator cars, and automatically calls an elevator that a guest intends to enter.
