36C24124Q0653.docx

Special Notice Special Notice

GENERAL INFORMATION

VAMC White River Junction

215 North Main Street White River Junction VT 05009

POINT OF CONTACT*

CONTRACT SPECIALIST

Phillip Crockett Phillip.crockett@va.gov 802-295-9363 x5199

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

AGENCY’S URL

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AGENCY CONTACT’S EMAIL ADDRESS

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DESCRIPTION

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

Justification for Single Source Awards IAW FAR 13.106-1 For Over Micro-Purchase Threshold but Not Exceeding the SAT ($250K)

Acquisition Plan Action ID:

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs, VISN 1, White River Junction VA Medical Center, 215 N. Main Street, White River Junction, VT 05009-0001.

2. Brief Description of Supplies/ Services required and the intended use/Estimated Amount:

Description of Action: The project “1 West Nurse Call” has a firm-fixed price for the base year. The solution that will be deployed aims to provide medical providers, clinical teams, and VA support with a standardization of one updated nurse call system. The Jeron Nurse Call system provides an open platform that can integrate to the existing Vocera, Overhead Paging, Medical Devices, and Beds. The system will create a quieter care environment for the Veterans and their Care Teams through these integrations. Veterans’ calls can go directly to their care giver for quicker response times. Jeron Nurse Call will provide support staff with the ability to plug-and-play devices for repairs allowing for significantly shorter periods of downtime. The ability to take a room out of service without affecting any other room will allow for less interruptions to Veteran Care. Expanding the Nurse Call at White River Junction will provide our Veterans and Staff with a working integrated system. The Jeron Nurse Call system will improve our patient experience, clinical satisfaction, and patient safety.

Description of Supplies or Services: The White River Junction VA Medical Center intends to install the Jeron system in our newly renovated 1 West unit. The White River Junction VA Medical Center currently has Jeron installed on 100% of the operational units of the hospital. Without nurse call, staff would not have the ability to place a Code Blue Call or for Veterans to initiate calls for help adding additional strain on care teams and support teams. Deploying a different OEM system limits the integration capabilities the system offers while also increasing the risk for education related failures with a less known nurse call system. The goal is to quickly and safety install our nurse call standard in the newly renovated space to bring functionality for our patients and front-line staff. The facility’s primary goals are to maintain high quality care, standardize and improve safety, more effective and efficient use of staff and overall improvement in patient care. By procuring the standardized equipment, clinical care can be safer and more efficient patient care with increased functionality and clinical system integrations. To accomplish this, the proposed solution involves procuring the same Jeron system in the newly renovated space as the existing system in the rest of the facility, Jeron from SCI. The system includes integrating it with Vocera, Beds, Medical Devices, and Overhead Paging. This standardized implementation aims to streamline workflows, increase clinical response times, reduce time spent supporting the system, provide updated technology, streamline code blue notifications, and increase overall patient experience. Jeron has the ability to plug-and-play devices which will drastically reduce service calls and downtime of the nurse call system. The estimated cost of the Jeron Nurse Call System from SCI is $51,895.74

Unique characteristics that limit availability to only one source, with the reason no other supplies or services can be used:

Standard Communications, Inc. (SCI) is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business and the exclusive provider of Jeron products to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Through their partnership with the VA, SCI has successfully deployed and supported the same solution at numerous other VAMCs. As a result, they have acquired extensive knowledge of the capabilities of the current systems and have worked closely with the technical and functional resources within the VA. This familiarity with the VA will be critical in integrating new components with the existing legacy components. SCI has an in-depth understanding of the design and architecture of both the existing systems at the White River Junction VA Medical Center and the platforms intended to integrate with. Market research was conducted, which involved analyzing data from ECRI which listed the market leaders in nurse call systems. The research also included examining the solutions deployed at other VAMCs and product demos from various vendors. Based on this research, it was determined that only the Jeron Solution from SCI could fulfill the requirements of the White River Junction VA Medical Center.

Since the Jeron products offer distinctive features that cater to the specific needs of the Clinical Teams and Support Teams, implementing the proposed solution is the most prudent and viable approach, both from a financial and technical standpoint.

Jeron is capable of providing a system that is VA serviceable by being a plug and play design. This would increase the system availability and decrease system downtime.

Jeron is the only system that would allow for backward and forward compatibility. This would reduce total cost of ownership by being able to continue to run one backbone of the system. This also would allow for any future CBOC installs to be able to run on the same system installed at the Main Medical Center. Integrating the full healthcare network.

Jeron products are manufactured and assembled in the USA. The product is readily available for delivery without major delays. This would limit the time of performance allowing White River Junction VA to have a working system faster and ensure limited interference to patient care.

3. Description of market research conducted and results or statement why it was not conducted:

The Government's technical experts have been conducting market research since 2015 and formally concluded in 2023 with a award to Jeron. As part of the process, the facility reviewed other similar systems, including Rauland and Hil-Rom. However, Rauland system was invasive to install and was a significant cost burden on the Government at double the price of the Jeron system while Hil-Rom does not include backward forward compatibility that allows for older systems to communicate with newer systems. The Government's technical experts concluded that none of these products could meet the interoperability and compatibility requirements previously discussed.

Jeron is the only provider that can provide White River Junction VA Medical Center with a high acuity/low acuity integrated system. The ability to be backward and forward compatible allows Jeron to run as one system provided White River Junction VA Medical Center financial benefit while providing the proper technology for acuity level in the medical center.

By implementing the proposed solution, the medical center aims to improve the overall patient experience, reduce the response time, minimize maintenance expenses, and standardize on one system. In addition, VA Subject Matter Experts continually review industry trade publications and conduct internet research to identify any other brand name software available. Based on all the research efforts conducted, the Government's technical experts have determined that only the Jeron brand name can meet all the needs of the VA.

4. Contracting Officer's Certification: Purchase is approved in accordance with FAR13.106-1(b). I certify that the foregoing justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Chief, HTM White River Junction VA Medical Center

Special Notice