JA_TAC-19-52871_-_LSRP.pdf

Laboratory System Reengineering Program (LSRP) Control Number: TAC-19-52787 Site Maintenance and Software Support

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Office of Acquisition Operations Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source action is for a firm-fixed price contract with Cerner Corporation (Cerner) for the renewal of software maintenance support for existing Cerner Millennium PathNet Helix and Cerner Millennium PathNet Anatomic Pathology, General Laboratory, Micro software licenses.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA Office of Information Technology (OIT) Laboratory System Reengineering Program (LSRP) requires the renewal of Cerner Millennium PathNet software maintenance support on existing software licenses. LSRP acquired the Cerner Millennium PathNet software as a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to provide effective and efficient medical care to its beneficiaries as well as fulfill the mission critical role of the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service (P&LMS) to facilitate the provision of timely, cost effective and highest quality anatomic and clinical pathology services. The LSRP LIMS is a Commercial-Off- The-Shelf (COTS) product, brand name Cerner Millennium PathNet software, that is interfaced with Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA). The LSRP site was the first implementation of the Cerner Millennium PathNet LIMS and was completed in Huntington, West Virginia VA Medical Center (VAMC) in July 2011. LSRP has a requirement to ensure the Cerner Millennium PathNet software is supported and maintained until the new Electronic Health Record Management (EHRM) system is implemented at Huntington VA Medical Center. This includes software upgrades and patches that are necessary for the LSRP site to remain current.

The period of performance shall be from January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019 with three 12-month option periods for continued maintenance support.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.302-1 entitled, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this action is Cerner Corporation, 2800 Rockcreek Parkway, Kansas City, Missouri. Based on market research, as described in Section 8 of this justification, it was determined that only Cerner software maintenance can meet the Government’s requirements. Cerner Millennium PathNet software is a proprietary software product, therefore, no other software maintenance provider has access to the proprietary code to perform the necessary maintenance and technical support to include software updates and patches.

Access to this proprietary code is also necessary to ensure all services provided are properly configured. The software maintenance support for the Cerner Millennium

LSRP Site Maintenance and Software Support Control Number: TAC-19-52787

PathNet software licenses is critical to the collection of medical lab results. If this software is not maintained it would halt the VAMC’s ability to view Veteran and patient lab results, directly impacting their care and service.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, the details of which are in section 8 of this justification. The market research conducted did not yield any potential sources, other than Cerner, who could meet all the Governments requirements. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. Additionally, the proposed action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities website in accordance with FAR Part 5.201. Any proposals that are received shall be evaluated.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed. VA awarded a contract for a new EHRM to replace VistA with a commercial health care application. It is expected that the EHRM will replace the functionality provided with the Cerner Millennium PathNet software. The Government anticipates that the new EHRM solution will be implemented at LSRP starting January of 2022 and the existing Cerner Millennium PathNet software may be decommissioned.

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted during August through September 2018 to ascertain the ability of similar software maintenance that meets the Government’s requirements. The research consisted of extensive internet searches looking for the software maintenance functionality to support the existing Cerner Millennium PathNet software licenses. These searches included similar software such as NTT Data, Flatworld Solutions, Openxcell, and Agilethought. It was determined that none of these software products were capable of accessing Cerner’s proprietary source code which is required to provide software maintenance support on the Cerner Millennium PathNet software. Additionally, Government representatives directly contacted Cerner on September 13, 2018 to inquire if it has authorized resellers that offer this support. Cerner confirmed that its software and applications are proprietary and no company, vender or organization has access to, or allowed to support, maintain, or edit the Cerner Millennium PathNet software. Therefore, only Cerner Millennium PathNet maintenance support can meet the Government’s requirements.

9. Other Facts: None