Department of Veterans Affairs, Great Lakes Healthcare Systems, Great Lakes Acquisition Center, Bldg. 5, 5000 West National Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53295

J -- MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR OF BIOMERIEUX AUTOMATIC MICROBIOLOGY SOL 69D-045-00 DUE 092799 POC Diane Brazale, Contracting Officer, (414) 902-5403 The Great Lakes Acquisition Center intends on negotiating a sole source contract with bioMerieux, Inc. of Hazelwood MO to provide full maintenance and emergency repair of the Biomerieux Automatic Microbiology System. Equipment is located in the Microbiology Lab Section, at the VAMC, Iron Mt. Michigan. This solicitation is for the period beginning October 1, 1999 through September 30, 2000 plus four (4) option renewal periods. SIC 3845. The Microbiology System interfaces with multiple pieces of medical equipment within the Microbiology department as well as with the hospital's VISTA database, bidirectionally. To the best of our knowledge, bioMerieux the manufacture of the equipment is the only available source who employs personnel that are factory trained and who maintain a supply of repair parts that are accessible in a timely fashion. Certification on training, knowledge and experience in maintaining equipment is required. This Notice of Intent is not a request for proposals. Interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement, provide specific factual data and other pertinent information as so desired, to be used as an evaluation basis to determine competence to successfully meet the requirements. The government reserves the right not to open this requirement to competition based upon responses to this notice. Technical responses and requests received, as a result of this Notice of intent, will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Vendors must provide evidence of its experience in: working on the equipment identified, with existing computer applications and the VISTA interface. The above should be submitted via fax to Diane Brazale, Contracting Officer at (414) 902-5464 by 2:00 PM September 27, 1999. Posted 09/16/99 (W-SN380989). (0259)

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