DIR OF CONTRACTING WALTER REED AMC, ATTN MCHL Z BLDG T 20, 6825 16TH STREET NW, WASHINGTON DC 20307-5000

J -- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON MAINTENANCE OF MEDICAL AND BIOMEDICAL EQUIPMENT SOL YMEAAY-8180-0174 POC Contract Specialist C. BLALOCK (202) 782-1174 (Site Code DADA15) The Walter Reed Health Care System (WRHCS) and the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command (NARMC) are looking at ways to cut costs of medical equipment maintenance contracts. It is our goal to reduce annual contract costs by at lest 25%. We are currently looking at the feasibility of establishing a Prime Maintainer Services Program. Under this program, the WRHCS (and at a later date, some of the regional activities) would consolidate annual medical maintenance contracts (and possibly one-time medical maintenance contracts) under one contract, managed by one contractor. It is also our goal to improve the training and utilization of the in-house work force by ensuring that in-house maintenance personnel perform first call maintenance services. Under this Prime Maintainer Program, the in-house maintenance staff will be encouraged to handle repair problems, which have historically been left to the service contractors. The WRHCS includes the main hospital at Walter Reed, Dewitt Army Hospital at Fort Belvoir, Kimbrough Army Community Clinic at Fort Meade, and the Pentagon Health Clinic. The North Atlantic Regional Command includes the WRHCS, the medical activities at Fort Bragg, Fort Lee, Fort Eustis, Fort Monmouth, West Point, Fort Drum, Fort Knox, and several other smaller satellite activities. The WRHCS is interested in exploring all options which will accomplish the goal of at least a 25% costs savings, while simultaneously maintaining or improving the quality of services currently being provided by the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) or Independent Service Organizations (ISOs) under 25 separate annual contracts or under one-time service contracts. This Request for Information (RFI) solicits your comments and answers to questions on prime maintainer services. Based on the information submitted, it is WRHCS's intent to select the best all around alternative and to proceed with a formal Request for Proposal (RFP). It should be noted that this RFI is merely a request for information and is not intendedto obligate the Government in any way. There will not be any reimbursement for information received by the Government under this RFI Please reply to the issues/questions addressed below as succinctly as possible and please do so in writing and electronically to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Contracting, ATTN: Ms. Cynthia Blalock, Bldg T-20, Washington, DC 20307 or email Cynthia_Blalock@WRAMC1- AMEDD.ARMY.MIL 1. Background information: a. Describe your organizational structure b. Discuss your mission statement c. Explain why you believe that you can meet our primary objective of contract cost reduction. d. Provide a list of references 2. Please discuss the type of information that you as the Contractor would need to see in a solicitation that would allow you to prepare a successful proposal to the Government. In other words, explain what type of information does the Government need to provide to you. 3. Please explain your proposed coverage terms, e.g., 24 hours, 7 days a week service, all parts included, etc. 4. Please explain how you would address non-covered services. For example, if a light bulb or an accessory on a piece of equipment is replaced but is not covered under the contract. How would compensation be made keeping in mind that unauthorized commitment of the Government is not allowed? In other words, how will your contract ensure that all of the items required to bring the unit up to current manufacture specifications will be included without the Government being billed for additional (after the fact) expenditures? 5. The Government has staggered annual contracts that start and end at different times. How would you phase in these contracts? How would you pick up equipment whose warranty is expiring? 6. We currently utilize the Army's Medical Department Property Accounting System (AMEDDPAS) as our main Maintenance Management System. Government employees can only update this management system. It is used to meet Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations certification, College of American Pathology certification, and other requirements. How will you be able to support the updating of this database in a timely manner? What would be the desired interface with this system? 7. How do you propose to conduct preventive maintenance services? Will you schedule these services or will the Government schedule them? How do you propose to ensure compliance? 8. What guidance/procedure would you use to establish the frequency of preventive maintenance services? Would you use the OEM's recommendations, JCAHO requirements, historical trend analysis or some other basis? 9. Can you explain the pros and cons of using a third-party source to repair/maintain equipment versus the OEM? 10. Please explain your proposed level of service, e.g., total response, the government has first call, other. 11. The OEM normally installs all of the latest updates and modifications as a part of the annual service contract. How will your contract ensure that all of the latest updates and modifications are installed in a timely manner? Additionally, please explain how you intend to interact with the OEM to obtain technical support, if needed, and why you feel that the OEM would be responsive to your request(s). 12. Please explain the level of customer support you provide. Will you propose to provide a contract manager on-site as part of the overall contract price or is this addressed as a separate service? 13. The Government has in-house maintenance capabilities and as such has the right to determine whether new repair work would be done in-house or by the contractor. 14. The Government may be interested in maintaining several of the existing annual contracts and not incorporating these under the proposed Prime Maintainer Contract. Please state your position on this. 15. Please address how you propose to maintain operational availability of equipment. 95% up time? 90%? Explain how this can be measured? 16. The response times and the period covered for emergency services in the current annual service contracts vary. How will your contract approach this variance? 17. Please address your proposed response time to emergency services, priority services, routine services. 18. Please address the incentives, if any, that you will provide to encourage the Government to be frugal. 19. Our original intent is to address only the WRHCS in this contract. However, at a later date, we would like to include other Regional Medical Command sites. 20. The WRHCS will include the new Pentagon Health Clinic that is currently being constructed. 21. It is our intent to cover only medical equipment that will be defined by us. How do you define medical equipment, especially in the area of automation? How are Digital Imaging Network Pictorial Archival Computer System (DINPACS) and Medical Digital Imaging System (MDIS) defined? Could you cover DINPACs or MDIS if we needed you to? 22. If we included one-time service contracts, how would you address this in your proposed contract? How would you arrive at a cost quote for these? 23. How do you propose to service our contracts? Do you have in- house maintenance capabilities or would you contract out to third-parties? 24. Who is accountable for the work that is or is not accomplished? Must the Government provide quality assurance, or will you? If you provide quality assurance, will this be at an additional cost, or is it a standard part of the contract? 25. Training of in-house service technicians is included in some of the existing annual service contracts. How will your contract provide for the training of in-house service technicians? 26. How would adjustments to the contract (additions, deletions) be handled? Posted 07/01/98. (0182)

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