Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2023-08-11
Buyer: Sykehusapotekene HF
Country: NO
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 48180000 | 48814500 | 85149000
Estimated value: 25000000 NOK
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Middleware for patient-specific one-dose production will be procured for the Norwegian Hospital Pharmacy Trust [Sykehusapotekene HF]. This will replace the previous software called ATC Host. The middleware will contribute to achieving the goals with a closed medicine loop. This is achieved through automated conversion from the active ingredient to the product and controlled production of patient-labelled one-doses. The contest had a deadline of 13.04.23, and is published here https://doffin.no/Notice/Details/2023-608689
A chosen middleware solution is an important element in meeting the goals for a closed medicine loop and should contribute to quality improvement, efficient use of resources, simplification of work processes, as well as efficient operation and management of the solution in close cooperation with a tenderer. A goal has also been set that the new application/middleware can be used in other hospital pharmacies in the South Eastern Norway Regional Health Trust [Helse Sør-Øst (HSØ)], and that it can also be used with other packing machines than those from Baxter. SAHF would like a system that can be expanded to other health trusts that are owned by HSØ if the need should arise.
The system must fulfil statutory requirements for personal protection and information security. The functionality in the system must be flexible and contribute to making the hospital pharmacies' work processes more efficient. The system must always be in accordance with the current laws and rules, and it must be easy to configure for adjustments in work processes. It is easy to extract registered data, with good structures for data acquisition, so that further processing and analysis can be undertaken.
The middleware will communicate with the basket system that is in use in HSØ. This is IMDsoft Metavision. The doctor prescribes medicines to patients through the basket system on the active ingredient level, not the product level. Furthermore the middleware must be able to communicate with different production machines in order to start production of patient-specific one-doses. These are the two most important integrations. We would like access control through single-sign-on, based on the role the person has. We use basic data connected to medicines from the FEST/SAFEST database, but we can also look are reusing master data here from other sources that already use FEST. We would like stock status updates to be visible in the middleware. We envisage obtaining this directly from the stock management systems (ERP).
A central functionality of the middleware will be converting prescriptions (for the active ingredient) into a commercial product that we can package as patient-labelled single doses/a product that can be dispensed and delivered to the Hospital Pharmacy by post.
A further description of the desired functionality is provided in SSA-K Annex 3 and the requirements in SSA-K Annex 1.
- Contribute to fulfilling the goals of the closed medicine loop, provide increased patient safety, meet information security and personal protection requirements, ensure stable operation and access to relevant competence for the maintenance and development of the system.
- Support an improved and more automated work process, as well as contribute to efficiency and quality control of medicine deliveries in the form of one-doses labelled for patients in the hospital. A possible added value of the system would be the possibility to pick and process orders for other commercial or prepared products (not only packaged as single doses) for a complete delivery of the medicines from the hospital pharmacy to the post.
- Makes it possible to track the process before production. Evaluations and approvals must be made by the right person and production must only be commenced by an approved person.
- Is user friendly and has a short response time. Is in Norwegian and supports HSØ's goals for company architecture and architecture principles (see SSA-K Annex 3 and chapter 4 and 5 here)
- Has a pricing and licensing model that ensures incentives for scaling, good hospital economics, efficient operation and management of the system.
Maintenance contract and license agreement. System development and further deployment. Extension of the agreement up to a maximum of 8 years


Winner: Thula Nordic Source Solutions
Award value: 25000000
Number of bids: 3