Blood Bank Validation Services-RFI.docx

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information & Technology (OI&T), Request for Information (RFI) Blood Bank Validation Services

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. Do not submit a proposal. This RFI is for planning purposes only and shall not be considered an Invitation for Bid, Request for Quotation or a Request for Proposal. There is no obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services described in this RFI. Your response to this RFI will be treated only as information for the Government to consider. You will not be entitled to payment for direct or indirect costs that you incur in responding to this RFI.

This request does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated, or received for this effort. The information provided may be used by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in developing its acquisition strategy. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. The Government will not pay for the information submitted in response to this RFI.

Background: The VA anticipates a requirement for a contractor to provide blood bank validation services at each site with Full Blood Bank/Transfusion Medicine Services and those with transfusion only services to validate the build and configuration of the system, both for the local site build and enterprise review of all orderables, interpretation patterns, blood products, instrumentation connectivity and patient product compatibility.

The mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office (EHRM-IO) is to transform how the VA delivers health care by implementing an enterprise-wide electronic health record (EHR) to standardize care across facilities, strengthen interoperability and collaboration with federal and community partners, foster innovation, improve provider and Veteran experiences, and ensure the continued delivery of high-quality, safe, and efficient health care to our nation’s Veterans. EHRM-IO is in the process of migrating VA’s 170 Medical Centers (VAMCs) from the Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) to the Oracle Health (OH) Millenium EHR.

Many of these VAMCs operate a blood bank and/or perform transfusion services and will be using the Oracle Health Pathnet Blood Bank system after go-live. Validation Services are required by regulatory and accreditation organizations (VA, Food and Drug Administration, Association of Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB), Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and The Joint Commission (TJC)) to ensure patient and blood product. Compliance with the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) Regulations requires that these environments are validated prior to go-live.

The VA currently has 12 sites planned for go-live in calendar year 2026 which required Blood Bank Validation.

Validation services are expected to start no later than December 1, 2025, last up to 12 weeks per site and be completed no later than one month prior to the Go-Live deployment date.

It is requested that all companies interested in participating in this effort please note their interest and submit responses to the items listed below.

If interested please provide/respond to the following:

1. Indicate whether you are a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) or a Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB), or another type of small business not veteran related, and if so under which North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code(s) are you considered a Small Business (as stated in the System for Award Management (SAM) Database).

2. Provide any questions/concerns/comments on the Draft PWS.

3. Provide a capability statement describing your company’s ability to meet the requirements in the attached draft PWS. This shall include relevant, applicable references to examples of previous work or solution implementations, and/or organizational experience that relates to this requirement. The capability statement shall be limited to five (5) pages and no more than five (5) megabytes (MB). RFI submissions shall be provided to the points of contact (POC) identified in this posting no later than July 22, 2025, 10:00AM PST.

Instructions for Submitting Questions and the RFI Response:

The VA Technology Acquisition Center POCs for this RFI are Contract Specialist Nicholas Fry Sandoval and Contracting Officer Wendella Baptiste. Submit any questions to this RFI directly to Nicholas Fry at Nicholas.fry2@va.gov, with a CC to Wendella Baptiste at wendella.baptiste@va.gov.

Submissions shall be less than 5MB and shall be no more than five

(5) pages in length.

Attachments:

0001 – Blood Bank Validation Services PWS v.1.1_DRAFT