4. Initial Presentations
Now that you have a good idea of what you're looking for, It's time to meet the nurse call suppliers and familiarize yourself with their systems. Bring them up to speed on your project and requirements. They should make you aware of their product line and suggest which product and options will best suit your needs. Don't expect them to bring in a live system at this point. This meeting should be a learning and information gathering session for the both of you.

5. Live Presentations
The next step is to have the suppliers come to your facility and present the live product to you. You should give them adequate space and time for the presentation. Usually a conference room or classroom would be ideal for a presentation. Allowing 1 hour for setup, 2 hours for the presentation, and 1 hour to disassemble the equipment is reasonable. Having all the nurse call suppliers present at the same time in the same room (usually referred to as a "bake off") is not preferable. This type of presentation compromises confidentiality, it does not allow the level of interaction required to really get to know a company or a system and it can lead to information overload for the staff. It is better to space the presentations out over several days. This allows the staff a chance to process the information. Use a vendor evaluation form to score each vendor. This will help maintain a fair comparison of each vendors product.

Seeing is believing….. During the presentation ask the presenter to demonstrate the integration to wireless telephones and pagers so you can see how it functions with their system. Keep in mind that the level of integration varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. When considering wireless telephones and/or pagers, a critical function of the system is the assignment of staff to devices and staff to patients. Ask your presenter to fully decribe this part of the system.

During the presentation you will see many features and options. Ask the presenter to keep clear what's "standard" and what's "optional". Keep good notes on the features and/or integrations that you think will work well for you.

6. Writing a Request For Proposal (RFP)
Once you have identified what you are looking for and explored all the current technology, it's time to develop an RFP. This can be published by the facility or by the electrical engineer.

This is a good time to talk about contractors and construction. Your architect is responsible for designing the unit, and the location of doors, windows, etc. The electrical engineer designs all the electrical systems such as power, lighting, telephone outlets, data outlets, and the nurse call system. The electrical engineer will also write the specification for the nurse call system. If the staff have not had input to the electrical engineer there is a possibility that the electrical engineer will specify a system that does not meet the staff's requirements.

Once the plans and specifications have been produced the system will go out to bid (unless the hospital wants to have nurse call suppliers bid direct).

The nurse call manufacturer will bid to an electrical contractor, the electrical contractor will bid to a general contractor and the general contractor will bid to the hospital.

As you can see, it is very important that all involved completely understand the requirements of the facility so the staff will get the system they expect.

Your RFP should include:

• A scope of work (the areas of the facility that will be effected)
• A performance specification (how you expect the system to operate)
• Architectural plans with the nurse call system layout
• A reference list from the vendor
• Pricing based on the scope of work, specifications and the architectural plans
• Maintenance agreement for years one through five
• Include any and all training requirements including nursing staff, biomed staff and training staff.
• Warranty Requirements

You should allow one (1) month for a response.

Encourage the suppliers to provide you with "value engineering alternates" These are cost saving suggestions that may vary from the specification but still provide similar functionality.

A good example of this would be:

• The plan shows a separate code blue station and patient station in a patient's room.
• Some suppliers have code blue button integrated in their patient station so a separate station would be redundant. The manufacturer would suggest removing the separate station as a valued engineered alternate to reduce cost.