P03 - Justification and Approval_REdI.pdf

VHA Resuscitation Education Products and Services

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Strategic Acquisition Center – Frederick (SAC-F) 5202 President’s Court, Suite 103 Frederick, MD 21703

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a non-competitive award for a firm-fixed price short -term bridge contract to RQI Partners, LLC, a joint venture entity created by the American Heart Association (AHA) and Laerdal Medical (hereby referred to as RQI-P), a large business, to provide continued, uninterrupted access to enterprise wide resuscitation education material and services via the Resuscitation Quality Improvement (RQI) digital platform. This platform provides the training required to maintain mandatory certification and competency for Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) to over 250,000 Veterans Health Administration (VHA) clinical and non-clinical personnel.

On May 15, 2025, the Agency issued Request for Proposals (RFP) 36C10X25R0014, to procure cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) testing stations and equipment, electronic courseware, educational material and maintenance and support services. The RFP was protested to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on June 25, 2025. The Agency elected to take corrective action by canceling the solicitation whereby the VA was given guidance to review the agency’s requirements, perform new market research, and resolicit the requirements, or take other appropriate actions. On July 18, 2025, GAO dismissed the protest.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: This contract will provide for continued access to the RQI 1Stop digital platform for resuscitation training, support for 2,050 deployed CPR mobile testing stations across the VHA enterprise, real-time performance feedback, electronic licenses for education, instructor materials, and digital curriculum updates. The estimated contract action for a base period of three

(3) months, and three (3) 3-month option periods, for a total of twelve (12) months, is $24,391,925.00.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. Section 3304(a)(2), as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.103-2, Unusual and Compelling Urgency, which permits contracting without providing for full and open competition in situations where 1) an unusual or compelling urgency precludes full and open competition, and 2) delay in award of a contract would result in serious injury, financial, or other, to the Government.

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The current contract supporting the VHA Resuscitation Education products and services expires September 22, 2025, no further options exist on said contract and no other contract vehicle currently exists to procure these vital services. There is a continuing need for these mission-critical services. The Agency anticipated meeting the required date timely and issued full and open competitive solicitation 36C10X25CR0014, on May 15, 2025. The Agency received a pre-award protest on June 25, 2025. The Agency took corrective action and cancelled the solicitation. The protest was dismissed on July 18, 2025, in light of the corrective action.

The Agency, as part of corrective action, is currently reassessing its requirements and conducting market research to determine how best to procure the CPR training in light of the grounds raised in the protest. This process, along with re-soliciting the requirement and making an award will not be complete before September 22, 2025.

Failure to secure a bridge contract will result in a full stoppage of services and access to required resuscitation education products. Optional CLINs for resuscitation education materials have been included to accommodate the 2025 guideline release scheduled for October 22, 2025. The Agency will have 90 days to execute a modification of the contract to deploy all new materials and resources to every VA medical center to ensure compliance with regulatory training. VHA is mandated to maintain compliance with federal healthcare regulations and VHA directives to ensure staff competency in resuscitation techniques. Clinical employees with expired certifications would pose a significant risk to VHA demonstrated by noncompliance with federal healthcare regulatory accreditation standards, noncompliance with VHA national directives to ensure workforce readiness, and potential legal liabilities related to adverse Veteran care events. To mitigate the lapse in services, VHA employees, who are required to renew certifications on a biennial basis, would be required to return to a less-effective classroom setting for instructor led training which would be at a significant increased cost to the government and result in a notable loss of clinician time spent on Veteran care. Regulatory health care accreditation standards, such as The Joint Commission, mandate that hospital staff are trained through evidence-based training programs to recognize the need for and use of resuscitation equipment and care. This initiative is vital to ensuring the highest standard of emergency medical care for Veterans and aligns with the Department of Veterans Affairs’ commitment to patient safety and operational excellence as required in VHA Directive 1177, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, VHA Directive 1101.14, Emergency Medicine and VHA Directive 1101.13(1), Urgent Care. This short-term bridge contract is necessary to ensure the Agency has the ability to meet its requirements to provide CPR training and testing to its employees.

The delay in procurement is due to a protest and not the result of inadequate planning.

RQI-P is uniquely qualified to provide this urgent and compelling service because:

a. RQI-P currently provides Layperson, BLS, ACLS and PALS electronic courseware, along with the necessary equipment and peripheral devices, vendor support services to allow the Agency to meet federal healthcare regulatory accreditation standards, such as those set by The Joint Commission, as well as VHA national directives requiring continuous workforce competency in CPR.

RQI-P is currently performing these services and is the only vendor positioned to continue performance without delay or a gap in mandated service. RQI Partners complies with FedRAMP requirements and was issued an Authority to Operate (ATO) by VA in March 2025 that is valid for two years. No other resuscitation education provider is capable of obtaining the necessary ATO in time to provide the required training, equipment and service.

b. VHA has fully deployed over 2,050 CPR mobile testing stations, which are uniquely integrated into RQI 1Stop ecosystem. These stations function with RQI- P’s proprietary digital resuscitation platform. The digital platform integrates adaptive learning, automated CPR performance feedback, analytics, credential management, and real time compliance monitoring in a closed ecosystem. Due to the proprietary nature of the existing equipment, no other vendor can provide the licenses and support services needed for the continued use of said equipment pending re-solicitation and award of a new contract.

c. Currently there are approximately 2,500 instructors and 250,000 clinical and non-clinical learners across VHA who are trained and certified under the RQI-P system. This system provides self-directed, low dose, high frequency (LDHF) resuscitation training. LDHF training allows for standardized, quarterly resuscitation skill refreshers resulting in ongoing verification of competency using real-time audio and visual feedback. Acquisition of a new system would require re-training employees and would undoubtedly result in loss of required certifications while any new system was implemented. RQI-P can maintain the current environment and avoid a lapse of employee certification while a new solicitation is developed.

The AHA holds exclusive rights to the accredited, competency-based resuscitation training content. Laerdal Medical is the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for the simulation and feedback devices that support this training. Together, AHA and Laerdal formed RQI Partners, LLC, a joint venture, that is the sole authorized provider of the RQI program and associated technologies.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Under this circumstance, an offer will only be sought from the incumbent, RQI-P. However, pursuant to corrective action in protest B-423673.1, the VA is re-assessing its requirements, updating its market research and will re-solicit its requirement. In summary, there are no sources that can fulfill the Governments requirement by September 22, 2025. Due to the anticipated performance period being limited and the complexity of the requirement, meaningful competition is not anticipated. Additionally, the Government will publicly post this justification in accordance with 6.301(b)(1): the justification “must be posted within

30 days after contract award.” Although this justification will be made publicly available, the VA will not post a notice of proposed contract action required by FAR Subpart 5.201 to SAM.gov in accordance with the posting exception found at FAR Subpart 5.202(a)(2).

7. Determination by the CO that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable: The current pricing being paid to the contractor has already been verified to be fair and reasonable by a warranted Contracting Officer. The Contracting Officer for this action will review the pricing offered and will use the pricing from the current contract and pricing received in conjunction with this action to verify those prices offered to be fair and reasonable. Should discussions be necessary, the Contracting Officer will conduct those with the information gained from that review.

8. Market Research: For the reasons stated above, and based upon the results of previous market research, only the incumbent, AHA/RQI-P, is capable of providing the required services during this short-term bridge contract. This approach ensures continuity of services while the VA continues efforts to award the full requirement, to include option years. This bridge is the only viable solution that provides sufficient time to complete a thorough acquisition without disrupting critical services. This is the only solution that provides adequate time to better define the requirements and salient characteristics within the PWS and conduct additional market research for the new requirement. The urgency of this procurement is such that any additional time spent conducting further competition would directly result in a lapse in services and access to required lifesaving training.

9. Other Facts: The current Resuscitation Education Products and Services are mission-critical, directly impacting patient safety, staff readiness, and compliance with national resuscitation standards. Any interruption would compromise the delivery of life-saving training across VHA facilities. An established Integrated Project Team (IPT) is actively engaged and will regroup to review the Government’s requirements and acquisition strategy. However, the lead time required for thorough acquisition planning, including market research, drafting of technical documents, solicitation development, evaluation, and award exceeds the duration of the existing contract.

AHA/RQI-P has been identified as the only responsible source with the proprietary rights to deliver and support the RQI 1Stop digital platform. No other vendor possesses the necessary access, licensing, or capability to integrate a comparable solution into the current VHA deployment without requiring massive retraining of staff, significant infrastructure overhaul, and substantial operational disruption. The RQI 1Stop system is fully embedded into existing clinical workflows and aligned with current training schedules, performance metrics, and compliance reporting.

10. Listing of Sources that Expressed, in Writing, an Interest in the Acquisition:

No other sources are in a position to take on this service for this period of time.

11. A Statement of the Actions, if any, the Agency May Take to Remove or Overcome any Barriers to Competition before Making subsequent acquisitions for the supplies or services required: The Agency will re-evaluate its requirements and update market research and resolicit the requirement consistent with the results of the market research. The base and option period under this bridge are structured to ensure this action uses the shortest period of performance necessary to resolicit and award a new contract.

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL