The University has a need to purchase the Centricity Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) Software licensing, Support and maintenance. This PACS system is needed to acquire and store radiological and cardiac diagnostic images. The end result will be that physicians throughout the enterprise, primarily Radiology and Cardiology, but also Emergency Department and many others, can view images generated via x-ray, MRI, CT, ultrasound and the like. The volume of users who depend on this system for image retrieval during the care delivery process is several thousand.

Over the past year UI Health experienced 0 unscheduled downtimes that could have impacted patient care and the immediate delivery of radiological images. Information Services tracks system downtimes and requires remediation should they occur. The PACS system is an FDA regulated system, so system uptime is a key indicator of system health. Hospital IT technicians and the GE technicians routinely perform system health checks of the software system. In addition GE provides remote monitoring tools that assist with trouble-shooting.

GE PACS is utilized across the UI Health continuum of care. This application is heavily interfaced with all imaging capture modalities such as CT and MRI scanners, diagnostic radiology modalities, Cardiology/Obstetrical Ultrasounds, remote image capture devices, as well as Nuclear Medicine modalities. Greater than 70 GE workstations are housed across the organization allowing physicians to view diagnostic quality images during the patient care processes. GE offers functionality that monitors the health of these workstations easing the analysts monitoring and maintenance workload. GE provides major and minor software releases and updates are provided as a part of this agreement which allows us to stay current with new industry standard functionality. GE also provides guaranteed integration services ensuring connectivity and DICOM integration with imaging capture modality devices. GE provides system integrity checks to ensure alliance with FDA regulations. Images are also accessible via the Electronic Health Records (EHR) through integration that embeds a link within the clinical note.

The University has determined that this purchase is only economically available from this source because the procurement is software license, upgrade or maintenance. The university, on information and belief, has concluded that only one vendor can meet its need or can meet the need economically. That vendor is (vendor name). The university has provided detailed justification to support its conclusion as shown on the attached Sole Source Justification Form.

Although the university has presented this as a sole source procurement, we are seeking competitive information from firms with the capability of meeting the universitys need (even if performed in a manner different from what has been presented) to contact us and provide sufficient information to show the need can be met. If we receive that information, the Chief Procurement Officer will offer a public hearing to consider the matter. Hearing information is described below.