REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
This RFI was used at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to obtain
information from different PACS vendors. You are free to use any portion of
this RFI to develop your own RFI.
The purpose of an RFI is to give the vendor as much information about your
operation, your expectations and limitations as you can - this will enable the
vendors to tailor the information to your facility or withdraw from
consideration if they cannot meet your stated needs.
Request for Information for a Picture Archive and Communications System
(PACS) for the Department of Radiology at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical
Center (DHMC) and the Dartmouth Hitchcock Alliance. The Dartmouth
Hitchcock Alliance is a group ten of affiliated hospitals - it works like a
GPO.
Background
DHMC is a 400-bed teaching hospital with the following imaging equipment
modalities:
Current number of imaging rooms updated as of 1/2004 shown in red.
2
2
3
5
11
3
4
1
1.5T GE MR units 3 plus 1 mobile
GE CT units 3
GE Interventional/Angiography units
Mammography units Plus 1 digital mammo
Radiographic and R/Fluoroscopy suites 6 DR rad, 3 fluoro
Nuclear Medicine imaging suites
Ultrasound imaging suites
CT/PET mobile
An expansion of the department scheduled to open in mid-2004 will add 3
DR, 2 CR, 1 CT/Angio, 2 ultrasound, 2 digital mammography, 1 PET/CT, 1
CT
The Radiology Department at DHMC does approximately 155,000 studies
each year using the above imaging modalities. 2004 project 220,000 exams
Currently the only section of the department that has converted to "filmless"
imaging is the Ultrasound Department. Ultrasound uses the Kodak InSite
system, which is being phased out by Kodak at the end of 2001.
As part of its preparation for PACS, the Radiology Department is planning
to start the installation of a Computed Radiography system in its plain film
section (DX). A CR vendor has not been selected yet. We expect this
installation to be complete by October 2001. We determined that DR was
better for us. In 2003, DHMC purchased six DR rooms and 4 CR units.
Another 3 DR and 2 CR units on order for expansion.
The DHMC Radiology Department has an IDXrad radiology information
system operating at the 9.7 version. It is anticipated that this system will be
upgraded to the IDXrad 10 version in 2002. The upgrade of the RIS was
postponed to 1/2004 to avoid doing too many changes at the same time. It is
expected that any PACS equipment vendor will integrate seamlessly into
either IDXrad V9 or V10.
The following issues were critical to DHMC being able to install a PACS.
Some vendors could only work with a 100BastT network throughout the
facility. To rewire the hospital would have cost additional millions - one
estimate was $6,000,000. Several vendors withdrew from consideration.
The DHMC main campus was designed in the late 1980s and opened in
1991. The data network design reflected the best standards of the period for
the cabling plant that would be required for ongoing computerization of the
medical center. It was modern for the time, consisting principally of
Category 3-compliant copper cabling to the desktop. This limits
transmission speeds to 10 megabits-per-second. Data network equipment
provides switched 10BaseT services. Ten wiring closets of the 81 in the
complex have been upgraded to Category 5-compliant cabling to all stations
(Only one of these ten closets is in the Radiology area, and it will be
abandoned as part of the major construction/renovation project). In these ten
closets data network equipment provides switched 10/100BaseT services. In
most closets, further cabling upgrades are impossible without physical
expansion. For this reason any PACS proposal that requires 100 megabitper-second or greater transmission speeds will require substantial
investments in network infrastructure and will probably have physical space
and construction impact as well. This will be taken into account in
evaluating the RFI and RFP responses.
The DHMC Radiology Department will expand as part of an institutional
expansion project scheduled to be completed in 2004. These new sections,
the Diagnostic and Treatment Building and the Ambulatory Care Center will
include the following additional equipment:
Diagnostic and Treatment Building (D&T)
2
2
1
CT units
MR units
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) units
Ambulatory Care Center (ACC)
2 Mammography units
3 Ultrasound units
2 Diagnostic Radiology (plain film) units
The Goal
The DHMC Department of Radiology goal is to develop a phased approach
to convert from film-based imaging to digital imaging for all modalities
except mammography by 2004. The PACS will be seamlessly integrated
into the IDXrad RIS. Images will be available for interpretation within
Radiology and viewing from the personal computers (PC) of the clinicians at
the DHMC campus and clinicians located away from the DHMC campus via
the Internet.
Phases for PACS Integration
Phase 1 - The introduction of computed radiography (CR) in portions of the
DX and ED sections will be completed in FY2001. Image recording will
continue to be film-based until the full PACS is deployed. DHMC went
with DR for primary radiographic equipment with CR for portables and
special cross-table work.
Phase 2 - The replacement of the Kodak InSite Ultrasound digital recording
system. This must be done by January 2002. This could be an independent
system, which will later be integrated into the PACS network, or it could
become part of the initial PACS network.
Phase 3 - CT, MR and CVIR (Interventional Radiology) to provide both
softcopy interpretation, digital archive and the ability to export images from
Radiology to the PCs of referring clinicians both on the DHMC campus and
those located in other communities.
Phase 4 - Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Radiology migration into the
PACS network in FY2003.
Phase 5 - Installation of the PACS into the D & T and ACC buildings by
their scheduled opening in 2004.
As part of our PACS planning process, we are requesting information from
your company in order to determine whether your company will be invited
to respond to our request for proposal (RFP), which will be issued in mid2001.
Require the vendors to respond in the exact way you have outlined the
questions. This will make it easier to compare vendors.
Please respond to the following broad information categories:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
PACS product name
Years your company has had a PACS product
Years your current product line has been offered
Total number of PACS installations in 2000 (US only)
Total number of PACS installations in 2000 (Worldwide)
Product Offered - Please provide detailed information on the following:
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Servers
Archives
Web server
RIS interface with IDXrad
Entry level teleradiology
Computed radiography
12.
13.
14.
15.
Digital radiography
Digital mammography
Off-site storage
CD-ROM - DVD burner
Hardware and Software - Please provide detailed information on the
following:
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
Software platform
File server
Web server
Archive
Workstations
Preferred Archive
Medium
Capacity per disk/tape
Maximum capacity (TB)
Digital scanner
Type
LAN network supported
LAN network recommended
WAN network supported
WAN network recommended
Is third party software used?
If so, whose?
In what applications?
DICOM interface manufacturer used
HL-7 interface engine manufacturer used
HIS vendors implemented a working interface to
RIS vendors implemented a working interface to
OEM Partners - Please provide detailed information on the following:
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
Hardware
Archive
Web browser
Computed radiography
Digital radiography
Service - Please provide detailed information on the following:
34.
35.
36.
37.
Size of your PACS field service
Location
Service response time guarantee
Up-time guarantee
What differentiates your PACS from others?
Information from the RFI will be used to structure the RFP. For example: In
the service section above - the RFI asks what their service response time and
up-time is -- when you write the RFP you will require a specific service
response time and up-time. It makes not sense to require a 1 hour service
response time of none of the vendors are able to do better then 4 hours perhaps because you are in a rural area as DHMC is.