36C24220Q1267.docx

Contract Opportunity Sources Sought Notice

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* = Required Field Contract Opportunity Sources Sought Notice J041 ThinPrep processor 2000 service contract 10468-3904 36C24220Q1267 09-28-2020 10am

EASTERN TIME, NEW YORK, USA

N 339112 Department of Veterans Affairs Network Contracting Office 2 James J. Peters VA Medical Center 130 West Kingsbridge Road Bronx NY 10468-3904 Marshand Boone Department of Veterans Affairs James J. Peters VA Medical Center 130 W. Kingsbridge Ave Bronx

NY

10468 https://www.va.gov https://www.va.gov marshand.boone@va.gov marshand.boone@va.gov Contracting Office Information:

Department of Veterans Affairs Network Contracting Office 2 130 W. Kingsbridge Road Bronx NY 10468

Synopsis:

Please note that this is not a request for quotes or proposals, the Government is seeking information for market research purposes only. The Department of Veterans Affairs, James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY, is conducting market research to find qualified vendors to provide maintenance of existing cytology Thin Prep 2000 processor. (see attached draft SOW)

Please see draft statement of work for full description. The North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) is 339112; the size standard is 1,000 employees. The purpose of this notice is to gain knowledge of potential qualified sources for this procurement. Responses to this notice will be used by the Government to make appropriate acquisition decisions. Responses to this notice should be provided in a capabilities statement which includes: 1) Offerors name, address, point of contact, phone number, and e-mail address; 2) Offerors interest in bidding on the solicitation when it is issued; 3) Offerors capability to perform a contract of this magnitude and complexity and three examples of comparable work performed within the past five years with a brief description of the project, customer name, and dollar value of the project) ; and 4) Offerors Business Size (Large Business, HUBZone, Service Disabled Veteran Owned and/or Small Business, 8(a)) and DUNS number. If your firm is a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned or Veteran Owned Small Business, you must be CERTIFIED in VetBiz (see internet site: http://vip.vetbiz.gov). Contractor must be registered in System for Award Management (SAM) (see internet site: http://www.sam.gov).

Responses to this notice must be submitted in writing (email) and received by September 28, 2020 at 10:00 AM EST. A solicitation is not currently available. If a solicitation is issued, it will be announced on Federal Business Opportunities website http://www.fbo.gov at a later date, and all interested parties must respond to that solicitation announcement separately from the responses to this announcement. Please email questions and responses to this notice to Marshand Boone at Marshand.boone@va.gov.

STATEMENT OF WORK

James J. Peters VA Medical Center 130 West Kingsbridge Road Bronx, NY 10468

General Information Title: Thin Prep 2000 Processor

Scope of Work: The James J. Peters VAMC Cytopathology department currently seeking to purchase service/maintenance for an existing cytology Thin Prep 2000 processor.

Background: Cytology is the examination of cells from the body under a microscope to detect infectious agents to benign and malignant tumors. There are different techniques to prepare cytology specimens: direct smearing, cytospin preparation, and Thin Prep preparation using Thin Prep 2000 Processor. The direct smearing and cytospin preparation often create thick smears, obscuring debris or inflammation covering the infectious agents or cancer cells which can be challenging for the screeners to make appropriate diagnosis. However, a gentle dispersion step in Thin Prep 2000 Processor breaks up blood, mucus, non-diagnostic debris, and thoroughly mixes the cell sample creating thin layered and less overlapping slides. Also, the Thin Prep 2000 Processor constantly monitors the rate of flow through the ThinPrep Filter during the collection process in order to prevent the cellular presentation to be too dense or too scant creating uniform distribution of cells on the slides. Thin Prep 2000 Processor eliminate limitations from other methods of preparation and allowed to provide more accurate and comprehensive results.

Type of Contract: Firm Fixed Price.

The contractor shall provide, service/maintenance to the Medical Center. The contractor shall perform to the standards in this contract..

Terms of Agreement:

The awarded contract shall be in effect from the date of award with four (4) additional Option Years.

Service & Support Service and support agreements are critical to provide excellent and continuous quality of care by ensuring optimum performance of testing equipment and require the following:

1. Technical support telephone hotline for troubleshooting available 24 hours per day from Monday to Friday.

1. Same day service call back response is required within 4 hours for unresolved issues using the telephone hotline technical support

1. On site field service is required within 24 hours for repairs.

1. In person technical support is required for preventive maintenance, and equipment repairs.

1. Service agreement shall include all cost for part, labor and preventive maintenance to ensure optimal equipment performance.

1. UPS maintenance, repairs, or replacement is required during life of the contract.

1. Detailed service reports are required after each service call.

Price:

Pricing shall include maintenance and support of the existing Thin Prep 2000 Processor instrument, including service, replacement parts, and preventive. Deliver to:

Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Service James J. Peters VA Medical Center Bronx VA 130 West Kingsbridge Road Bronx, NY 10468

1. GENERAL

Contractors, contractor personnel, subcontractors, and subcontractor personnel shall be subject to the same Federal laws, regulations, standards, and VA Directives and Handbooks as VA and VA personnel regarding information and information system security.

1. ACCESS TO VA INFORMATION AND VA INFORMATION SYSTEMS

1. A contractor/subcontrator shall request logical (technical) or physical access to VA information and VA information systems for their employees, subcontractors, and affiliates only to the extent necessary to perform the services specified in the contract, agreement, or task order.

2. All contractors, subcontractors, and third-party servicers and associates working with VA information are subject to the same investigative requirements as those of VA appointees or employees who have access to the same types of information. The level and process of background security investigations for contractors must be in accordance with VA Directive and Handbook 0710, Personnel Suitability and Security Program. The Office for Operations, Security, and Preparedness is responsible for these policies and procedures.

3. Contract personnel who require access to national security programs must have a valid security clearance. National Industrial Security Program (NISP) was established by Executive Order 12829 to ensure that cleared U.S. defense industry contract personnel safeguard the classified information in their possession while performing work on contracts, programs, bids, or research and development efforts. The Department of Veterans Affairs does not have a Memorandum of Agreement with Defense Security Service (DSS). Verification of a Security Clearance must be processed through the Special Security Officer located in the Planning and National Security Service within the Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness.

4. The contractor or subcontractor must notify the Contracting Officer immediately when an employee working on a VA system or with access to VA information is reassigned or leaves the contractor or subcontractor’s employ. The Contracting Officer must also be notified immediately by the contractor or subcontractor prior to an unfriendly termination.

2. VA INFORMATION CUSTODIAL LANGUAGE

a. Information made available to the contractor or subcontractor by VA for the performance or administration of this contract or information developed by the contractor/subcontractor in performance or administration of the contract shall be used only for those purposes and shall not be used in any other way without the prior written agreement of the VA. This clause expressly limits the contractor/subcontractor's rights to use data as described in Rights in Data - General, FAR 52.227-14(d) (1).

b. The contractor/subcontractor shall not make copies of VA information except as authorized and necessary to perform the terms of the agreement or to preserve electronic information stored on contractor/subcontractor electronic storage media for restoration in case any electronic equipment or data used by the contractor/subcontractor needs to be restored to an operating state. If copies are made for restoration purposes, after the restoration is complete, the copies must be appropriately destroyed.

c. If VA determines that the contractor has violated any of the information confidentiality, privacy, and security provisions of the contract, it shall be sufficient grounds for VA to withhold payment to the contractor or third party or terminate the contract for default or terminate for cause under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 12.

d. If a VHA contract is terminated for cause, the associated BAA must also be terminated and appropriate actions taken in accordance with VHA Handbook 1600.01, Business Associate Agreements. Absent an agreement to use or disclose protected health information, there is no business associate relationship.

The contractor/subcontractor must store, transport, or transmit VA sensitive information in an encrypted form, using VA-approved encryption tools that are, at a minimum, FIPS 140-2 validated.

a. Except for uses and disclosures of VA information authorized by this contract for performance of the contract, the contractor/subcontractor may use and disclose VA information only in two other situations: (i) in response to a qualifying order of a court of competent jurisdiction, or (ii) with VA’s prior written approval. The contractor/subcontractor must refer all requests for, demands for production of, or inquiries about, VA information and information systems to the VA contracting officer for response.

b. Notwithstanding the provision above, the contractor/subcontractor shall not release VA records protected by Title 38 U.S.C. 5705, confidentiality of medical quality assurance records and/or Title 38 U.S.C. 7332, confidentiality of certain health records pertaining to drug addiction, sickle cell anemia, alcoholism or alcohol abuse, or infection with human immunodeficiency virus. If the contractor/subcontractor is in receipt of a court order or other requests for the above-mentioned information, that contractor/subcontractor shall immediately refer such court orders or other requests to the VA contracting officer for response.

3. TRAINING

c. All contractor employees and subcontractor employees requiring access to VA information and VA information systems shall complete the following before being granted access to VA information and its systems:

(1) Sign and acknowledge (either manually or electronically) understanding of and responsibilities for compliance with the Contractor Rules of Behavior, Appendix E relating to access to VA information and information systems;

(2) Successfully complete the VA Cyber Security Awareness and Rules of Behavior training and annually complete required security training;

(3) Successfully complete the appropriate VA privacy training and annually complete required privacy training; and

(4) Successfully complete any additional cyber security or privacy training, as required for VA personnel with equivalent information system access [to be defined by the VA program official and provided to the contracting officer for inclusion in the solicitation document – e.g., any role-based information security training required in accordance with NIST Special Publication 800-16, Information Technology Security Training Requirements.]

d. The contractor shall provide to the contracting officer and/or the COTR a copy of the training certificates and certification of signing the Contractor Rules of Behavior for each applicable employee within 1 week of the initiation of the contract and annually thereafter, as required.

e. Failure to complete the mandatory annual training and sign the Rules of Behavior annually, within the timeframe required, is grounds for suspension or termination of all physical or electronic access privileges and removal from work on the contract until such time as the training and documents are complete