SOLICITATION NOTICE
70 -- Software Maintenance Services for VA's Decision Support System (DSS)
- Notice Date
- 3/9/2009
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 541519
— Other Computer Related Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Center for Acquisition Innovation (Austin), VA CAI Austin, Department of Veterans Affairs;OA&L;1701 Directors Blvd;Suite 810;Austin TX 78744
- ZIP Code
- 78744
- Solicitation Number
- VA-798A-09-RP-0047
- Archive Date
- 3/14/2009
- Point of Contact
- Wayne MillerContract Specialist<br />
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a notice of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) intent to award a sole source one-year contract with options to renew for four years to Eclipsys Corporation, for the continuation of the Eclipsys Transition II (TII) software used by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for its Decision Support System (DSS). Justification for other than Full and Open Competition Each justification shall contain sufficient facts and rationale to justify the use of the specific authority cited. As required of FAR 6.303-2, each justification shall include the following information: 1. Requesting Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration Decision Support Office 200 Springs Road Ads Bedford, MA 01730 Contracting activity:Austin Information Technology Center (AITC) 1615 Woodward Street Austin, TX 78772 2. Nature and/or description of the action: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) intends to procure from Eclipsys Corporation, a one-year contract with options to renew for four years for the continuation of the Eclipsys Transition II (TII) software used by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for its Decision Support System (DSS). The contract will be for maintenance and technical support of the existing software and the creation of customized programs, adaptations and extracts to meet VA's changing business needs. The VHA will acquire the required service through the Austin Information Technology Center's contracting activity. 3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency's needs (including the estimated value): The contractor must provide the following: I.Maintain the current software in a production ready state to include: a.Periodic maintenance releases and new version product update software for installation. b.Appropriate software modifications when the software malfunctions, or when the software does not meet the specification contained in the functionality presented to the VA. c.Be complete with all technical documentation that fully describes the release and update instructions to install the release on the mainframe at the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC). d.Be fully tested in a VA test environment and certified by the Contractor that the release contains all VA specific codes and procedures in full working order prior to release to the VA for testing and installation. e.Be production ready at a time mutually agreed to by the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR) and the Contractor. f.The contractor shall make appropriate expertise available to attend conference calls and face-to-face meetings in order to maintain the DSS operational application during the term of this contract. II.Provide software enhancement support. a.Support ongoing efficiency and effectiveness enhancements to the mainframe operating system, existing Eclipsys software code and VA custom code to accommodate changing requirements, management initiatives, and reporting needs within and across software regions. b.The contractor shall modify existing Eclipsys code to: i.Incorporate into the processing cycle new source extracts (inputs to the system) or national data extracts (outputs from the systems) or modifications to both types of existing extracts when requested. ii.Repair global errors when the data being processed with current code results in inaccurate patient utilization or encounter data due to the condition of the source data. iii.Support the annual fiscal year conversion. iv.Support ongoing efficiency and effectiveness endeavors that modify either the operating system or Eclipsys software code or VA custom code. III.Support of the Operating system a.The Contractor shall provide support of the software operating system on the AITC's mainframe consisting of: i.Operating system diagnostic trouble shooting services; ii.Providing Computer Corporation of America (CCA) Data Base Management System (DBMS) software maintenance releases with installation instructions, technical and other documentation; iii.DBMS new versions with installation instructions, technical and other documentation; iv.Active coordination with CCA to ensure timely releases of Model 204 fixes, maintenance and new version releases, and prompt response to DBMS trouble shooting b.Provide the AITC with continuing on site and telephone technical support. c.Provide staff knowledgeable in VA's technical platforms. d.Support changes to the mainframe operating system. IV.Provide training and education support. V.Support the DSS Help Desk The estimated value of this acquisition is $12 million. 4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition: Title 41 U.S.C. 253.(C)(1) and Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1. 5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited: "The current Eclipsys code for the VA's Decision Support System is proprietary to Eclipsys. VA has a restricted rights license to use the software. VA does not have the code. Therefore, only Eclipsys can maintain the software. "The Eclipsys software is more than an activity based cost accounting system. It takes the financial data and aggregates it to the department and product level. It also attaches each product (patient utilization) to a veteran's episode of care thereby allowing reconciliations and cost comparisons at the patient level. Additionally, the current system captures approximately 600 data fields that are unique to the VA operation. Some of these fields provide additional patient clinical data, which can be used in analyses to enhance patient care and effectively manage resources. No other supplies or services will satisfy VA's requirements. "Each of the 128 VHA facilities has slightly different clinical practice patterns and methods of recording data used by DSS. There is approximately 18 years of custom coding in the software to ensure the accuracy of data from the 86 financial and workload extracts from each of these sites. Additionally, Eclipsys developed the custom mainframe routines used to run the system. Reconstructing this custom code for another application would be extremely time consuming, and create substantial risk to the continuance and effectiveness of the program. No other supplies or services will satisfy VA's needs. "Any other vendor would be required to learn the VA business model, implement their system in 316 locations and then through extensive testing determine the amount of custom code needed to accommodate incomplete workload capture. This would create a substantial duplication of costs to the VA since both systems would need to run concurrently to ensure continuity of data reporting. VA could not recover these substantial duplication costs through competition. "Replacing the current system VA has been using for years would require extensive training of VA personnel. The expense of this training could not be recovered through competition. "There are approximately 5 terabytes of active DSS data and about another 8 terabytes on tapes that would need transformation if another system was installed. There is substantial risk that this vital historical data could not be used to trend workload, practice patterns or determine if scarce resources are being effectively used. "Replacing the entire system VA has in place would not only be extremely expensive, complex and risky, it would result in unacceptable delays in VA fulfilling its requirements. A cost benefit analysis was conducted and if award was made to another contractor there would be substantial duplication of cost to the Government that would not be recovered through competition. "Replacing the system that has proven itself with one that is unproven and untested in the unique VA environment would create substantial risk to the continued ability of VA to manage its resources and to improve the care to the veterans it serves. A host of current DSS users would need to alter processes to accommodate changes, which introduces substantial risk for the continuance of the gains made to improve veteran's care. Further: oThe system meets the legal requirements for a Managerial Cost Accounting System. oThe Allocation Resource Center (ARC) uses DSS patient cost data to formulate the reimbursement to each VHA facility. Any changes to the source system would require substantial testing and alteration to the reimbursement process. oSome medical centers use DSS data to create their budgets based on the allocation from the ARC thereby being able to track variances between budget and actual cost. oThe ARC also uses DSS clinical data to answer inquiries from Congress that directly effects the funding to the VA for special programs. oVA management at all levels uses DSS data to better manage outcomes of patient care and to allocate resources. There are over 100 financial and workload reports on the DSS web site to meet the needs of these end users. oNursing Service is using DSS data to track the ratios of nurses to patients to insure adequate coverage. oDSS data is used for medical center performance measures. oAt least 15 Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs) have data warehouses tailored to accept data from the current system. 6. A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies. A sources sought notice was posted to FedBizOpps on 2/18/09. Although ten (10) responses were received an analysis indicated that none of the interested contractors have a solution that will meet the needs of the Government, from the standpoint of technical, cost, and schedule, as detailed in paragraph 5 above. 7. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. The Contracting Officer will ensure that the firm-fixed prices are consistent with historical cost data on the current contract, as well as being comparable with other contracts for similar requirements, and be in line with the independent Government cost estimate. 8. A description of the market research conducted (see Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted. In addition to posting a sources sought notice on FedBizOpps, the following resources were researched: American Health Information Management Association; Bearing Point; College of Healthcare Information Management Executives; Department of Health and Human Services - Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society; KLAS; Medical Records Institute; The Health Technology Center; The Scottsdale Institute; Price Waterhouse Coopers; and various vendor web sites. 9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition, such as (COTR/PM to provide): "The Office of Manage and Budget (OMB) requires VA to conduct periodic operations analysis of the system. Price Waterhouse Cooper conducted one in 2000. BearingPoint conduced one in 2004. There is currently another one in progress. The Price Waterhouse Cooper review recommended keeping the current system due to the cost benefit analysis being unfavorable for any other system. The Bearing Point review identified other available systems but their analyses neither accounted for the costs of running concurrent systems during implementation, which would create an unfavorable cost benefit analysis, nor was there any assurance those systems could handle the workload generated by the VA. 10. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition. ASM Research Inc. Teradata Government Health Solutions CGI Federal AEI - Stratus Consulting Group Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Services SAS Federal Health Practice IBM Longview International Technical Solutions, Inc. FedSources, Inc. INPUT 11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required (CO to provide). "VA conducted extensive market research to determine if any other software could meet its needs. "VA will include option in solicitation for software source code so that VA or VA contractor could maintain the software in the future. 12. Certification requirement: (Technical/requirements personnel must certify). I certify the supporting data, including the statement of the Government's minimum needs and other rationale for other than full and open competition is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge.
- Web Link
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- Record
- SN01764540-W 20090311/090310131928-85573ce41fbe3117910d3eaf3780513a (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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