Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2024-07-30
Buyer: Health Service Executive (HSE)
Country: IE
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 72000000

Technical requirements: In December 2020, the HSE procured a solution under Emergency Procurement Regulation 32 to support the response to the Covid 19 Immunisation programme. The solution was built on Salesforce CRM platform and provided an immunisation system (Covax) and a public facing support platform (Service Cloud). Due to the extended duration of the pandemic, the ongoing need for comprehensive vaccination management, and a changing patient care pathway, continued integration and expansion of the solution was required to meet Public Health requirements. Covax has undergone significant development over three years, evolving from a MVP into a comprehensive immunisation system capable of managing multiple vaccine types. 
Covax vaccination platform has evolved to support the following: patient account creation; vaccination recording; full patient vaccination histories; administration of multiple vaccine products; configurable interval times and doses; configurable risk factors; product-based eligibility criteria; adverse reaction capabilities; diverse vaccine administration locations. Additional functionality includes patient portal; appointment scheduling; reporting and analytics; user training platform; support platform; communication platform.

With Covax embedded as the core, a network of interconnected software applications, data repositories, integration points, platforms and services have been built up to create the comprehensive and mature national immunisation ecosystem which is in use today. Vaccination records are ingested into Covax from GPs, Pharmacies, and various Community organisations. Data is enriched on Covax through integration with IHI, GP registry, Eircode, and a vaccination asset management system. National vaccination reporting is enabled though integration with the HSE’s data lake.

Covax is an established and embedded cornerstone of the national IT infrastructure. It is currently the largest patient database in the HSE, with over 4.4 million patient records and over 16 million recorded vaccinations. The architecture of the Covax system is proven in terms of both performance and scale, with the recording of 400,000 vaccinations per week at peak. The Covax public-facing portal has facilitated the self-registration of 2.2 million patients for vaccination to date and appointment scheduling functionality has created over 7.5 million appointments. Since 2021, Covax has ingested over 6 million vaccination records from GPs and 2 million from pharmacies. To date, over 20,000 clinical and operational staff have been trained to use the Covax system.

Embedded in the pandemic response was the requirement for HSE Live to provide public-facing support. Salesforce Service Cloud was used to provide this support, and with extensive and incremental development, this generic platform was tailored for use by multiple Covid support teams across the HSE including HSE Live, DCC team, HSE NSD (National Service Desk), Covax support and GP Resolver teams.
In December 2020 the HSE procured a solution under Emergency Procurement Regulation 32 to support the response to the Covid 19 Immunisation programme.  Salesforce licenses were procured initially for the vaccination management programme. The solution was built on Salesforce CRM platform and provided an immunisation system (Covax) and a public facing support platform (Service Cloud).  Due to the extended duration of the pandemic, the changing patient care pathway and the ongoing need to support a post pandemic covid vaccination regime, continued integration and expansion to meet Public Health requirements was necessary.

The solution has undergone significant development over three years, evolving from a minimum viable product into a comprehensive immunisation system capable of managing multiple vaccine types. A network of interconnected software applications, data repositories, integration points, platforms and services have been built up to create a complex and mature Immunisation Ecosystem with Covax at its core. 

The capability to extend Covax to meet the requirements for other immunisation programmes, such as Flu and Pneumococcal, has already been delivered and proven. Covax is now an embedded component of the national IT infrastructure used to record Covid, Influenza (Flu), and Pneumococcal vaccinations. It is currently the largest patient database in the HSE, with 4.4 million patient records and over 16 million recorded vaccinations. 

The HSE now intends to progress with the addition of further vaccinations leading to Covax becoming the National Immunisation Information System (NIIS). 

The technical sophistication and richness of the current immunisation ecosystem make it the ideal basis from which to fulfil NIIS requirements with minimal adaptation, in a timely and cost-effective manner, while avoiding duplication of existing efforts and mitigating the current clinical risks. 

The HSE intends to move forward as follows: 
-  Extend the use of the Covax system to support the administration of the National Immunisation programmes
 - Extend the use of Service Cloud to support all HSELive communication services
- Broaden the use of Salesforce CRM functionality to include other services as required

This will be done through the establishment of a Dynamic Purchasing System arrangement for ongoing products and services. 
 
To ensure continuity of safe delivery of health services and a value for money return on the significant capital investment to date, the HSE will continue with the current arrangements until the new arrangement is established.