SOURCES SOUGHT
V -- Travel Services
- Notice Date
- 10/10/2006
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 561599
— All Other Travel Arrangement and Reservation Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Clinical Center/Office of Purchasing & Contracts, 6707 Democracy Blvd, Suite 106, MSC 5480, Bethesda, MD, 20892-5480
- ZIP Code
- 20892-5480
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-SSN10102006
- Response Due
- 10/24/2006
- Description
- The Ambulatory Care Services (ACS) Department in the Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland intends to procure on a sole source basis to Omega Travel to continue providing patient travel management services for the period of November 15, 2006 through May 14, 2007. Requirements for travel services to be provided to patients include, but are not limited to, the following: Must establish a separate onsite reservation center at the NIH Clinical Center, Building 10, in Bethesda, Maryland to service only patient transportation requirements. Must implement a fee-based travel booking system with multiple methods for reservations including fax, e-mail, in person, and telephone. Must provide a 24-hour staffed toll free number available to travelers to perform emergency itinerary changes and emergency services outside regular business hours. Must comply with established Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) and corresponding HHS and NIH travel and transportation policy and procedures, and with mandatory Government programs for air travel. Consistent with the constraints of the GSA city-pair contract program (41CFR 301-15), and the Fly America Act, the Contractor must offer to book the lowest publicly available fare. These could include publicly available sale airfares that may be penalty airfares and publicly available consolidator fares. Must make reservations and issue tickets for patient travelers worldwide. Must provide lodging reservations to include initiating and confirming reservations and confirming the rate at which the reservation was made. Must use an automated accounting system with direct interface among the reservation, ticketing and accounting elements so that all passenger reports and summary data are automatically generated from point-of sale information. Must be able to deal with a diverse population of patients, many of whom are inexperienced travelers and need to come to the NIH on short notice. Must provide for each patient travel office employee a folder with the following information upon contract award to be readily available in the onsite patient travel office. - Job Description - Core Competencies for the Position - Annual Evaluation - Documentation of Contractor and NIH Training The travel needs of these patients and their families vary and can be quite complex. These complexities include open tickets for return flights back to the NIH for future visits. A vast majority of these patients interact, in person, with the travel agency staff. The applicable North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code is 561599 (small business size standard is $5.0 million dollars). The contractor providing the services must have the requisite experience in providing the patient travel services as described above. Contractor must demonstrate experience in working with providing these travel services in a research hospital environment to a diverse range of patients who are not only being treated for a variety of diseases (AIDS, cancer, heart disease, neurological problems, hearing and sight problems, etc), but who also have physical impairments as a result of their disease and treatment, and who also may speak different language, including sign language. Additionally, the contractor is required to have experience in working with patients who are inexperienced travelers with complex travel needs, including potential arrangement of international travel. It is believed that Omega Travel is the sole source for this requirement under the authority of FAR 6.302-1 (Only 1 Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services will Satisfy Agency Requirements) because of the following: The current Contractor understands the diversity of the patient population, the need to maintain patient confidentiality and the complexities of patient travel. Each NIH Institute determines its own reimbursement policies and procedures which the Contractor must follow when making travel arrangement. Because each patient travel request is unique, the Contractor must pay particular attention to the details of patient requirements and Institute operational policies and procedures related to processing patient travel requests. The Contractor also understands the mandatory training requirements that are necessary when working in a health care environment and directly with patients. They ensure staff completion of mandatory training upon entry as well as completion of the annual training reviews. This contractor has to ability and experience to ensure consistent service for patient travel so as to not impact the research mission of the NIH or patient care during the next six months while the five (5) year contract for these services is being established. Interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement. The capability statement shall be in sufficient enough detail so that the Government can determine the capability of your firm to provide the required services. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals and a solicitation document will not be issued. All capability statements received within 15 days after publication of this synopsis will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed interim purchase order based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether ton conduct a competitive procurement. See Numbered Note No. 22.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Bethesda, Maryland
- Zip Code: 20892
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Zip Code: 20892
- Record
- SN01163308-W 20061012/061010220111 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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