This Request for Proposals (the “RFP”) is an invitation by the Coordinating Entity to prospective proponents to submit proposals for a secure NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit ) Infant Picture and Video Messaging Solution, including Equipment, Software, Implementation, Support and Maintenance, as further described in Section A of the RFP Particulars (Appendix D) (the “Deliverables”).
The Coordinating Entity, as identified on the cover page, is issuing this RFP and administering the RFP process on behalf of the Purchaser(s) identified in Section B – Material Disclosures of the RFP Particulars (Appendix D).
The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Health Sciences Centre is a 60 bed neonatal intensive care unit, that provides specialty care to neonates from Manitoba, Northwestern Ontario, and Nunavut. This patient population includes, but is not limited to, preterm infants, very low birth weight infant, and infants born with medical or surgical conditions requiring specialized medical care within the NICU.
Prior to the move to the New Women’s Hospital in December of 2019, the NICU was located in three different geographical locations scattered throughout HSC, in an open pod style unit. The new NICU, however, primarily has single patient rooms, divided into 5 pods that extend over the length of a football field. Thus, in order to ensure that safe patient care was maintained in the new environment, locally streamed cameras that allowed the nurses to monitor the babies from within each pod was an absolute requirement for the move. This, in conjunction with the Vocera technology and the cardiorespiratory monitoring via the Philips monitors, enables nurses to safely monitor more than one patient, whilst in the POD, without physically being in each room.
Parents and caregivers of infants admitted to the NICU experience high levels of stress and trauma, primarily related to parent-infant separation, and feelings of helplessness; this parental stress was especially heightened due to the visitor restrictions associated with the recent pandemic. Although parental stress cannot be completely irradicated, the implementation of a family-integrated secure video messaging service that enables NICU staff to send videos, photos, and one-way message updates privately and securely to parents (on a mobile device or tablet) from the bedside, will minimize parental anxiety and stress. Thus, it will improve the overall experience of the NICU admission at HSC.
