36C77619Q0153-001.pdf

Request for Sole Source Justification Format >SAT

OFOC SOP Revision 08 Original Date: 03/22/11 Revision 08 Date: 04/18/2018

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

Justification and Approval (J&A) For

Other Than Full and Open Competition

(>SAT)

Acquisition Plan Action ID: 36C776-19-AP-1275

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs

PCAC, ST. Louis 4400 Meramec Bottom Rd. St. Louis, MO 63129

2. Nature and/or Description of the Action Being Processed: Short-Term Bridge Contract.

The purpose of this short-term contract is to cover the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) Resuscitation Education Initiative (REdi), Simulation Learning, Education and Research Network (SimLEARN) programs, urgent requirement for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation courseware training provided by the American Heart Association.

Courseware including on-site user training program support is currently being procured through an Inter-Agency Agreement with the Army Contracting Command – PEOSTRI via their BPA with the American Heart Association. PEOSTRI will no longer be utilizing this BPA with the American Heart Association. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) current Inter-Agency agreement with PEOSTRI expires June 30, 2019.

An additional four (4) month short-term contract to bridge the gap in service is needed due to required procurement lead times necessary to re-compete for a long-term complex acquisition of this nature. Four months will allow time for REdI, SimLEARN to plan and execute an acquisition strategy. The need for continued support for REdI, SimLEARN, must be issued as a sole source, four (4) month short-term contract, in order to meet mission requirements while on-going competition for the follow-on acquisition is being completed. The four- month short-term contract will be accomplished by awarding a sole source four (4) month short-term contract with the American Heart Association with a period of performance beginning June 14, 2019 thru October 13, 2019 valued at This requirement also includes a 6month option valued at The total estimated value for this action is

3. Description of Supplies/Services Required to Meet the Agency’s Needs:

The short-term contract will provide REdI, SimLEARN, with sufficient licenses as well as provide the vital training needed to VA clinical providers to maintain and sustain current and the short-term future needs. Lapse in this training, resulting in an insufficient numbers licenses, will impede the VA clinical providers from treating Veteran patients in emergency life-threatening situations due to absent/expired qualifications. As of May 7, 2019, the VHA has utilized 141,112 licenses leaving approximately one week of didactic training access left for learners. The current stock of BLS training licenses for hands-on skill testing has been

Original Date: 03/22/11 exhausted and is no longer available for staff. The current stock of ACLS licenses is expected to run out by June 30, 2019. It is imperative to procure the required training licenses in a swift manner to minimize the impact on access to care as outlined in Directive 1177.

Veteran Health Administration (VHA) Directive 1177 establishes the policy to optimize patient safety within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system by training appropriate staff on Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). Failure to achieve requirements set out by VHA directive 1177 for CPR training would result in; (1) diminished capability to maintain clinician competencies in CPR hands on training using realistic equipment, resulting in degraded skills for clinical providers and less than the highest quality care for veterans and; (2)possible loss of Veteran patient life.

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other than Full and Open Competition:

(X) (1) Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services will Satisfy Agency Requirements per FAR 6.302-1; 10 U.S.C.

2304(c)(1). Services are deemed to be available only from the original source for the continued provision of highly specialized services when award to any other source will result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirement.

( ) (2) Unusual and Compelling Urgency per FAR 6.302-2;

( ) (3) Industrial Mobilization, Engineering, Developmental or Research

Capability or Expert Services per FAR 6.302-3;

( ) (4) International Agreement per FAR 6.302-4 ( ) (5) Authorized or Required by Statute FAR 6.302-5; ( ) (6) National Security per FAR 6.302- 6;

( ) (7) Public Interest per FAR 6.302-7;

5. Demonstration that the Contractor’s Unique Qualifications or Nature of the Acquisition Requires the Use of the Authority Cited Above (applicability of authority):

Based on the following reasons, it is determined that only one source, American Heart Association (AHA) is capable of meeting the operational requirements with the highest degree of confidence minimizing unanticipated disruptions.

The Department of Veterans Affairs – Employees Education System – SimLEARN, REdI needs this courseware to train clinical providers at VHA Medical Centers. REdI is the VHA’s official National Training Center (using American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines), providing oversight for all resuscitation training within the VHA as outlined in Directive 1177. REdI is a VHA health care transformation initiative under the New Models of Care Specialty Care Operating Plan. The goals of the REdI Program are to expand the number of employees certified in ACLS/BLS over time, in order to advance the quality of patient care and to improve the documentation for resuscitation training

Veteran Health Administration (VHA) Directive 1177 establishes the policy to optimize patient safety within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system by training appropriate

Original Date: 03/22/11 staff on Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). Sub-paragraph 4 E (1) of the Directive cites VHA’s REdI is a VHA national program that standardizes, documents, tracks and monitors the provisions of ACLS, BLS, and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) training throughout VHA. REdI provides critical training support for medical center clinical and non-clinical employee field training. REdI adapts and implements the American Heart Association (AHA) training programs to support the needs of the Department of Veterans Affairs. “The directive requires all staff working in high risk areas or are Code Blue responders to obtain and maintain basic life support (BLS) and advanced life support (ACLS) certification. AHA resuscitation training is currently the only approved training for VHA staff under Directive 1177.

The VA currently owns 1137 fully equipped AHA carts that are used in combination with the courseware to provide the training to certify the VA workforce. Changing to a different courseware to provide the certification would necessitate the VA to retool or replace these carts at an additional cost.

A formal request for information (RFI) was posted in February 2019 soliciting capability statements from all business concerns who were authorized to provide AHA training courseware. Responses were received from three (3) vendors however, only one vendor (American Heart Association, Inc) met all the highly specialized salient characteristics put forth.

6. Description of Efforts Made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as deemed practicable: AHA/Healthstream is the current provider of these services to the VA. However, HealthStream’s partnership with AHA was discontinued as of 12/31/2019. Competitive offers were not sought for the proposed short-term contract. The acquisition process for a competitive long-term contract is currently underway and an acquisition strategy will be finalized in the coming months.

7. Determination by the CO that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable.

The anticipated cost will be considered fair and reasonable based on AHA/Healthstream currently providing the courseware to the Department of Veterans Affairs through contract W900KK-17D-0006 (Inter-Agency Agreement with the Department of the Army). Pricing for that contract was considered “Fair and Reasonable” at contract award.

The Contracting activity has performed preliminary Market Research to determine a fair price and will also ask for additional discounts. A technical evaluation of the final quote will be performed by the Program and Contracting activities to ensure the correct commodity is being procured and is within pricing identified in the Acquisition Plan and Market Research. The base and option value for this contract will be evaluated for fair and reasonableness prior to award.

8. Description of the Market Research Conducted and the Results, or a Statement of the

Reasons Market Research Was Not Conducted.

Market research was conducted via RFI on 1/28/2019 to identify sources that possessed the specific technical capabilities and access to the AHA courseware program currently required to fill the Government’s need.

Original Date: 03/22/11

9. Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other than Full and Open Competition.

The VA has in place an Inter-Agency agreement with the U.S. Army to deliver the courseware through a contract it has with HealthStream. The contract is scheduled to end June 30, 2019 however, the VA has used all of the BLS part 2 and 3 courseware licenses available under the current contract and as a result there is immediate need to put a short-term contract in place until a long-term contract can be awarded. Please note that HealthStream is no longer authorized to provide the courseware and currently AHA is the only source.

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

There were three vendors who responded to the RFI:

All require authorization from AHA to provide its proprietary training.

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:

SimLEARN is currently planning the follow-on competitive procurement. The four-month short-term contract is from June 14, 2019 thru October 13, 2019 and includes a 6 month option to the continuation of services until a new long term contract is put in place.

12. Requirements Certification: I certify that the requirement outlined in this justification is a

Bona Fide Need of the Department of Veterans Affairs and that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

13. Approvals in accordance with the VHAPM Part 806.3 OFOC SOP:

a. Contracting Officer or Designee’s Certification (required): I certify that the foregoing justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Original Date: 03/22/11 b.

c.