Q_A - HT940626QE098.pdf

Solicitation HT9406-26-Q-E098: Blood Donor Testing Services

Questions and Answers

1. If there is an incumbent contract or contractor associated to the requirement, please provide the contractor's name and contract number.

The name of the Incumbent is Bloodworks.

2. Is this requirement a brand-new requirement or a follow-on/recompete for existing services?

This is a follow-on requirement for recurring blood donor infectious disease testing and reference laboratory services.

3. What was the historical or previous award value for these services? The total award value of contract W91YTZ21C0021 is $4,955,661.77.

4. CLIN 0001 (Whole Blood Panel Testing) list of tests does NOT include CMV, Chagas/T.cruzi, or WNV NAT. Please confirm that our pricing proposal should include

Chagas/T.cruzi and WNV NAT testing for all donations?

The PWS lists Chagas/T.cruzi and WNV NAT as mandatory donor screening tests, though they were omitted from the pricing sheet description. Updated pricing sheet is uploaded.

5. Please confirm that CLIN 0002 CMV testing will only be performed for select donations only (approx.. 350) and NOT for all donations?

Confirmed. CMV testing will only be for Apheresis platelet donations.

6. Please clarify what is all expected for CLIN 0003 Blood Donor Reference Lab Testing?

Is this in reference to expected Confirmatory testing needed or for some other expected testing?

This is in reference to expected confirmatory testing and ABO forward and reverse discrepancies.

7. Please confirm if you expect Confirmatory testing for screen positive samples to be included in the Whole Blood Panel price, or if this can be a separate, individual sample pricing per sample needed?

CLIN 0003. See Question 6.

8. Please clarify what CLIN 0005 Courier Services (60 trips) is intended to cover. This covers a Courier Services doing a round-trip from Kendrick Memorial Blood Center, Fort

Gordon, GA to an away blood drive location to transport test tubes back to Kendrick Memorial

Blood Center? How far from KMBC are these blood drives?

Average, 400 miles round trip. Maximum miles, 900. This includes blood to be transported back to KMBC for processing. Blood tubes should be taken to an airport for air transport to the testing facility.

9. How often do you anticipate shipping test tubes from Kendrick Memorial Blood Center to our testing facility, daily (we are open and perform testing 7 days/week) or only several days per week?

PWS Sections 1.11.2 and 1.11.4 establish a mandatory 24-hour turnaround time for test results, which indicates daily specimen shipping. KMBC will be shipping specimens to the testing facility daily (7 days per week).

10. Please confirm that you anticipate using FedEx for shipping test tubes to our testing facility and that shipping/freight costs will be covered by the Army utilizing their own agreement with the freight company?

PWS Sections 1.11.3 and 1.17.1 state that the Contractor is responsible for providing all specimen transport, packaging, and shipping supplies. FEDEX will be used to ship blood tube samples to the testing facility. Shipping, packing, freight supplies, and courier expenses will be covered 100% by the Contractor.

11. One of the requested services is for Blood Donor Reference Lab Testing. Is there more information about what tests or services are needed within this broad topic (e.g., crossmatching, antigen-testing, etc.)?

The PWS list the tests and services needed.

12. Assuming multiple tests and services may be included, is it acceptable for us to submit our proposal with a price range or a complete price list for all reference lab testing?

The price list must be completed.

13. I did not see any clarification regarding the completion of Standard Form 1449. I will assume it is NOT required to be completed?

This is a combined Synopsis Solicitation so there is no requirement of returning a signed 1449 solicitation document with offer.

14. Regarding CLIN 0003-Blood Donor Reference Lab Testing, the clarification indicates this represents “expected Confirmatory testing and ABO forward/reverse discrepancies”. The

Pricing Sheet indicates that 2,774 samples from the expected 7000 annual blood donations would require this testing – that means 39.6% of the donations would need Confirmatory and/or ABO discrepancy testing. That is an exceptionally high number, as Confirmatory testing and ABO discrepancy testing normally run > 1% of donations. Are we certain this testing category does not include same additional testing needed – such as CcEeK Antigen screening, or something else?

To clarify, the confirmatory testing is for infectious disease testing. Not for additional antigen screening. The percentage is quite high. Over the past year, I’d say we average 5 – 10 confirmatory tests each month.