ATTACHMENT F - BRAND NAME JUSTIFICATION - NX EQ POWERED ERGONOMIC HYGIENE CHAIR.pdf

Arjo, Inc. Powered Ergonomic Hygiene Chair

BRAND NAME JUSTIFICATION UNDER SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES FOR CERTAIN

COMMERCIAL ITEMS IN ACCORDANCE WITH FEDERAL ACQUISITION

REGULATION (FAR) 13.5

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs

Office of Acquisition Operations Strategic Acquisition Center 10300 Spotsylvania Ave, Suite 400 Fredericksburg, VA 22408

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a brand name only, five-year Firm-

Fixed Price Requirements contract that includes decentralized delivery orders for Arjo, Inc. Powered Ergonomic Hygiene Chair and ancillary components. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Equipment Life Cycle Management (ELCM) Program identified Powered Ergonomic Hygiene Chairs as a candidate for VA-wide (otherwise referred to as “national”) single award Requirements contract.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The Powered Ergonomic Hygiene Chair is needed to avoid staff injuries from bending over, lifting limbs, turning and repositioning patients, or removing clothes during transfer. The chair raises to worker height electrically in order to prevent injuries from leaning. The chair offers replaceable padding for patients with delicate skin, as well as lap belts to keep patients securely in the chair. The chair reclines and raises feet in order to allow easy access to feet and showering position. The most unique feature of this hygiene chair is the feature that raises the legs off the chair, allowing access under the legs, hips and buttocks for cleaning, clothing removal, and bowel care. The combination of these advantages results in injury prevention for patients and staff, as well as the ability to shower patients using fewer staff and less time.

VA has a national requirement for Arjo, Inc. Powered Ergonomic Hygiene Chairs.

The proposed action is for a Requirements type contract with a total period of performance of five years beginning Fiscal Year 2022. The brand name items required for this contract are manufactured by Arjo, Inc.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 1901 as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.501(a)(1)(ii).

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Arjo, Inc. Powered Ergonomic

Hygiene Chair is a unique design that unlike any other hygiene chair on the market.

The Arjo, Inc. Powered Ergonomic Hygiene Chair enhances the patients experience with a design that increases clinician and patient safety.

The following design enhancements are unique only to the Arjo, Inc. Powered Ergonomic Hygiene Chair:

Arjo Powered Ergonomic Hygiene Chairs

Carendo Hygiene Chair

Care Raiser Function: The Care Raiser Function is unique, as it lifts the lower part of the resident's/patient's body, enabling easy and discreet access for sensitive hygiene tasks. The resident can be moved fully dressed to and from the showering area. With the Care Raiser Function, a single caregiver can easily manage the whole procedure alone from undressing, showering to dressing.

Changing of incontinence pads is also carried out in the best possible way. This eliminates awkward handling of hygiene routines in the resident’s bed. This function is also commonly used for bowel care in spinal cord injury patients. Without the function that raises the legs, it is impossible to remove clothing or wash underneath patients’ legs without manually lifting more than 35 pounds of a patient’s weight, which is prohibited by VHA Directive 1611 as well as OSHA inspection requirements and NIOSH recommendations. One leg of a 200-pound patient weighs 35 pounds, and legs of the patient at the 300-pound capacity of this patient are each expected to weigh 52 pounds. To remove pants, underwear, or briefs, one must tilt a patient, which requires a force equal to 32% of the patient’s weight, or 96 pounds of force for the 300-pound capacity of this chair. This is an unsafe operation, and cleaning/repositioning patients in showers is one of the most common ways staff are getting hurt handling patients. Staff need a safer way to shower patients without the manual repositioning that hurts them, and this Care Raiser Function is the only function in a shower chair or shower trolley that can take the weight off the hips and eliminate the manual repositioning.

Patient safety and positive clinical outcomes are critical in a hospital setting.

Providing systems/equipment such as this Powered Ergonomic Hygiene Chair to clinicians to operate/maintain decreases the likelihood of adverse patient outcomes. Adverse patient outcomes that have happened using other shower equipment includes multiple patients tipping out of shower trolleys when they had to be turned which is not necessary because of the Care Raiser function.

Patients have fallen off of non-motorized shower chairs that were too high, did not have lap belts, or did not have assistive features to raise and reposition the patient. Additionally, many staff have been hurt turning, holding up body parts, and repositioning patients during showers, which carry the additional risk that everything is harder to hold when wet. Manual handling of patient skin with hands, or manual pulling of cloth from underneath a patient when the patient’s weight is still on the cloth, can shear the patient’s skin and cause injuries and can also hurt the patient.

Patient safety risks are critical when purchasing medical equipment. Utilizing Arjo, Inc. Powered Ergonomic Hygiene Chair, VHA will improve patient safety by using consistent equipment that keeps both staff and patients safe. Facilities have been choosing this model for years because they need its safety features for patients and staff, including fall reduction.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the Market Research Worksheet. This effort revealed that no other brand can provide the care raiser leg-raising function, replaceable padding, and lap belts being offered by Arjo, Inc.

emergency stop and emergency lowering to get patients off the chair in a low ceiling room.

SC 10 Must have Waterproof cushions for back and seat comes with a waterproof back and seat, but no cushions.

The lack of cushioning on the makes it unsuitable for spinal cord injury and delicate long term care patients, which are the largest audience for this chair.

9. Any Other Facts Supporting this Justification: None

9. Interested Sources: See Section 8 above.

10. 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; however, all future requirements will be handled on a case-by-case basis to determine any future acquisition strategy.

12. Technical and Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

13. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Approval

In my role as Contracting Activity Competition Advocate, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve this acquisition on an “other than full and open competition” basis pursuant to the statutory authority cited in paragraph four above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition. As this action does not exceed $15M, the certification below required by FAR 13.501(a)(2)(ii) serves as approval.

Signature: