DOCUMENT
R -- VISN 8 TELECARE RECORD MGR RENEWAL - Attachment
- Notice Date
- 10/3/2016
- Notice Type
- Attachment
- NAICS
- 541519
— Other Computer Related Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Veterans Affairs;Technology Acquisition Center;23 Christopher Way;Eatontown NJ 07724
- ZIP Code
- 07724
- Solicitation Number
- VA11816Q1293
- Archive Date
- 1/8/2017
- Point of Contact
- Joe Pignataro, Contract Specialist
- E-Mail Address
-
5-1115<br
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Award Number
- NNG15SC76B VA118-17-F-1361
- Award Date
- 10/1/2016
- Awardee
- GMC TEK, LLC;211 CHURCH ST SE STE 115-A;LEESBURG;VA;20175
- Award Amount
- $637,207.79
- Description
- JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY 1. Contracting Activity:Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Acquisition Operations Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, New Jersey 07724 2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed price delivery order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) limited to authorized resellers for TeleCare Record Manager (TRM) Plus and Veterans Health Gateway (VHG) Plus software licenses and support renewals for Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 7 and 8. 3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed software renewal will provide VISN 7 and 8 with continued use of its 24 existing TRM Plus and VHG Plus software licenses and support, which are highly specialized software applications used by VISN 7 and 8 Telecare staff to provide telephone triage and informational services to Veterans, thereby allowing VA to comply with Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Directive 2007-033 for 24/7 access to medical advice. TRM Plus is a complete telephone liaison care management software solution that provides access to telephone treatment protocols to update and organize information from different categories of patient calls. VHG Plus is a clinical software application used by nurses who provide telephone triage services to Veterans. VHG Plus supports nurse clinical decision making by systematically assessing a Veteran's symptoms through the use of electronic algorithms with branching clinical logic, while providing reference health education information via a clinical library during the process. VHG Plus allows the nursing triage staff to identify emergencies, and reduces unnecessary clinic visits. This information is then integrated with the patient's actual health record. The TRM Plus and VHG Plus software are currently installed on triage systems used throughout VISN 7 and 8. The triage systems that are currently fielded use this software and allow users to create notes for registered and non-registered patients and have extensive reporting tools. Patients are able to call VISN 7 and 8 facilities and speak to VA representatives who are able to track and route calls for appropriate action while keeping a record of these contacts which are then stored within the patient's healthcare record through the existing Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) and Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) graphical user interface system. Additionally, the telephone triage system provides the support described and also includes a series of VA designed business rules which vary by clinical department and are applied during each triage encounter. There are also national business rules incorporated into the TRM Plus Software. Business rules are developed nationally for the telephone triage product and apply to all VA medical facilities. After beta testing several years ago, it was determined that these products would be used nationally by VHA medical facilities. VHA has integrated this software into both its computer hardware and clinical software environments. Both Vista and CPRS reside on the currently fielded triage systems. Documentation is automatically created in the background during the triage process and saved as a triage encounter record. The proposed effort shall also provide for support for TRM Plus and VHG Plus during the 12-month period of performance to ensure the software remains operational. This support includes patches, bug fixes and maintenance that will require a source to have access to both brands of software. The total estimated price of this proposed action is The period of performance is 12 months from October 1, 2016 through September 30, 2017. 4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B) entitled, "Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized." 5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based upon continued market research, as described in section 8 of this document, it is determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers of TRM Plus and VHG Plus software license and support renewals. TRM Plus Software, which is manufactured by Document Storage Solutions, Inc. (DSS), and VHG Plus Software, which is manufactured by DSHI Systems, Inc., has been used within VISN 7 and 8 since 2001. The TRM Plus and VHG Plus software is the only software that meets all of VA's interoperability and compatibility requirements. Specifically, both TRM Plus and VHG Plus software are an enhanced base-line commercial-off-the-shelf software product that VA information technology staff and VHA clinical staff have used to provide a custom VHA nursing telephone liaison care management system commonly referred to as the VHA Clinical Nursing Telephone Triage System. TRM Plus and VHG Plus software permits the user to access administrative and clinical information in the Veteran medical record known as the CPRS while launching the VHG Plus application should clinical algorithms be needed to evaluate the Veteran caller. TRM Plus and VHG Plus software is the only software that has the ability to interface with both VistA and CPRS and meet VAs interoperability and compatibility requirements of evaluating and updating patient record data. VistA and CPRS are currently only coded to work with TRM Plus and VHG Plus software which are embedded together. Use of any other software would result in extensive duplicated efforts to recode and reconfigure the existing triage systems that use VistA and CPRS. This would result in extensive duplicated costs and delivery delays that would not be recuperated through competition. The triage system is fully integrated into the VistA CPRS system utilizing this software. VA has many years invested in the fine-tuning of these software products to meet the current and ongoing architecture needs of VA. To work with another manufacturer's product to achieve the current level of sophistication of this software would require extensive rework and high level programing along with system design expertise to customize and retrofit another software product to meet the needs currently met by the existing software products which have been used for the past 14 years. This would entail a project involving 6 to 10 dedicated full-time employees working over a 5-year span to complete development and deploy the software. During this time VISN 8 would be without needed software to handle the total call volumes in all sites estimated to be half a million calls per year. Currently, a product does not exist that would interoperate in the current VistA and CPRS environments without considerable development and testing, the costs of which would not be recovered through competition. VA requires one source to provide both brands of software and support. This effort cannot be separated because the interactivity of both brands working together constitutes the product whole which is a comprehensive triage and information management system. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. Even though the Government is specifying brand name software licenses and support renewals, limited competition is anticipated among authorized resellers that hold current NASA SEWP V GWACs. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D) the resulting contract award will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities Page within 14 days of award and this justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity will be made publicly available. In addition, this Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity will be posted on the NASA SEWP V website with the solicitation. 7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for the required TRM Plus and VHG Plus software license and support renewals, the Government will continue to perform market research to determine if there are any storage arrays and/or maintenance providers available in the market place that will enable future requirements to be competed. 8. Market Research: The Government's technical experts have conducted research using internet searches looking for compatible electronic triage protocols that could be readily integrated with VistA and CPRS. It was determined that the dual products of TRM Plus and VHG Plus are uniquely able to conform to VA's specified healthcare requirements that permit full and seamless integration with VistA and CPRS without significant development, configuration and associated testing. As of March 2016, no other manufacturer exists that has products that can meet the Government's requirement of working fully with VistA and CPRS without significant development, configuration and testing duplicating what VA has already completed and invested in as detailed in paragraph 5 above. Additional market research was conducted by utilizing the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) Provider Lookup tool that identified multiple GWAC holders capable of providing TRM Plus and VHG Plus software license renewals and support. 9. Other Facts: None.
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- File Name: NNG15SC76B VA118-17-F-1361 NNG15SC76B VA118-17-F-1361_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3037384&FileName=NNG15SC76B-004.docx)
- Record
- SN04296440-W 20161005/161003234621-22cf7b73196c5b6ca2b4288717b91fb6 (fbodaily.com)
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