JA DSS DataBridge redacted.pdf

DSS DataBridge Annual Software Licenses, VA-27-000000586

Maintenance, and Support

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement Operations

Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way

Eatontown, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for the award of a firm-fixed-price contract on a sole-source basis to Document Storage Systems Incorporated (DSS), located at 12575 US Highway One, Suite 200, Juno Beach, Florida 33408. The requirement is for six brand-name DSS DataBridge annual software license subscriptions, maintenance, support, installation, integration, and testing in connection with version upgrades of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) clinical information system (CIS) and anesthesia record keeping (ARK) systems.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, VHA, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 17 has a requirement for DSS DataBridge annual software license subscriptions, maintenance, support, and associated installation, integration and testing for its existing DataBridge environment. VISN 17 Health Care Systems currently utilize DSS DataBridge software licenses to facilitate communication and integration between the Draeger ARK, CliniComp CIS, and VA’s Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA). DataBridge provides for the collection, integration, access, and reporting of clinical data and supports inbound and outbound Health Level Seven (HL7) interfaces with VistA, inbound data from medical devices, record uploads to VistA Imaging, and data extracts.

DataBridge provides a real-time interface between these clinical systems and VistA, allowing critical patient information, including physiological data, medications, laboratory results, patient assessments, orders, and clinical documentation, to be captured and made available within the Veteran’s electronic health record. The system also supports the creation and storage of Portable Document Format records accessible through VistA Imaging and the Computerized Patient Record System. This integration enables clinicians within and outside the immediate patient care areas to access complete and timely patient information, supporting continuity of care, clinical efficiency, and patient safety.

In addition to continued software licensing, maintenance, and support, this requirement includes DSS-performed installation, integration, and testing services necessary in connection with version upgrades to the existing Draeger ARK and CliniComp CIS environments. These services are required to ensure that the existing DSS DataBridge interfaces remain properly configured, integrated, and operational following the upgrades and continue to communicate successfully with VistA. Accordingly, the required software licenses, maintenance, support, and associated services must maintain compatibility with VISN 17’s existing DSS DataBridge infrastructure and functionality.

The period of performance is a 12-month base period for annual software license subscriptions, maintenance, support, installation, integration and testing, and 1 12-month option period for annual software license subscriptions, maintenance and support. The total estimated price of the proposed action, inclusive of all options is $xxxxxxxxxx.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1), as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.103-1,” Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.” The Government may contract without providing for full and open competition when the supplies or services required by the agency are available from only one responsible source and no other type of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this acquisition is DSS.

Based on market research, as detailed in Section 8 of this justification, no other source can provide the required DSS DataBridge annual software license subscriptions, maintenance, support, installation, integration and testing necessary to satisfy the Government’s requirement.

VISN 17 currently utilizes the DSS DataBridge solution to facilitate communication and interoperability between the VA clinical systems, including the Draeger ARK, CliniComp CIS, and VistA. The DataBridge solution provides the interface through which pertinent clinical data is communicated between these existing systems.

The current requirement includes DSS DataBridge software licensing and maintenance/support, as well as 720 hours of technical installation services required in connection with the Draeger system upgrade.

Although authorized resellers may provide the DSS software licenses, market research determined that the required installation, integration and testing cannot be performed by the resellers. DSS has confirmed that these services are performed by DSS technical personnel. Accordingly, the availability of authorized resellers for the software licenses does not provide an alternative source capable of performing the complete requirement.

The technical services are necessary to support installation, configuration, integration, and testing associated with the Draeger upgrade and its continued interoperability with the existing DSS DataBridge environment. Because DSS possesses the proprietary technical knowledge and access necessary to perform these services within its DataBridge solution, another contractor could not independently perform the required work without DSS’s involvement.

Separating the software from the associated technical services would not eliminate the Government’s need for DSS to perform the required services. Regardless of the source through which the DSS licenses are acquired, DSS personnel would still be required to perform the 720 hours of technical installation services associated with the upgrade. Therefore, competition among resellers would not provide the Government with an alternative source capable of independently satisfying the entire requirement.

Therefore, based on the above and the market research conducted, DSS is the only source capable of satisfying the Government’s complete requirement for the DSS DataBridge software and associated technical services. Accordingly, limiting consideration to DSS is necessary to meet the Government’s requirement pursuant to 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) and 6.103-1.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, the details of which are provided in Section 8 of this justification. The market research identified authorized resellers capable of providing DSS DataBridge software licenses; however, it did not identify an additional source capable of satisfying the Government’s complete requirements. DSS confirmed that the technical installation services associated with the Draeger upgrade are performed by DSS personnel and cannot be performed by its authorized resellers. Therefore, although authorized resellers are available for the software portion of the requirement, no other source was identified that can independently provide both the required DSS DataBridge software and the 720 hours of associated technical installation services.

Accordingly, competition is not anticipated for this acquisition. The Government will publicize a Notice of Intent to Sole Source on SAM.gov to provide potentially interested sources an opportunity to submit information demonstrating their capability to satisfy the Government’s requirement. Any capability statements, quotations, or other responses received will be considered by the Government’s technical team prior to award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: To remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, the program office will continue to conduct market research to determine whether additional sources become capable of meeting the Government’s requirements. Specifically, the Government will continue to investigate whether DSS authorizes third parties to perform the technical services associated with the DSS DataBridge solution, including installation, configuration, integration, testing, maintenance, and support. The Government will also consider alternative solutions that may become available and are capable of meeting VA’s interoperability and compatibility requirements with its existing clinical systems. VA technical experts will conduct this market research throughout the year.

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8. Market Research: Market research was conducted from May through August 2026. The Government’s technical experts reviewed similar software products and conducted web-based research to determine whether other commercially available solutions could meet VA’s requirements for interoperability and compatibility with the existing VHA infrastructure currently utilizing DSS DataBridge software. Similar solutions available from Oracle Health, Epic, and other sources were reviewed. While other companies offer software capable of operating with Windows-based programs, these solutions do not provide the required interoperability with the MUMPS programming infrastructure upon which VistA is built. Additionally, the source code required to provide maintenance, upgrades, and patches to the existing DSS DataBridge software is proprietary to DSS. Based on this research, the Government’s technical experts determined that DSS is the only source capable of providing the required maintenance, upgrades, patches, and support for the existing DSS DataBridge software.

Additionally, the Contract Specialist (CS) conducted market research from May through September 2026 to identify sources capable of satisfying the complete requirement. The CS contacted DSS to identify its authorized resellers and subsequently contacted authorized resellers Minburn Technology Group, LLC and Blue Tech Inc. to determine their ability to fulfill the requirement. DSS confirmed that its authorized resellers may provide the DSS software products; however, DSS performs 100% of the services associated with this requirement, including the required technical installation services. Further, one of the authorized resellers confirmed that it could provide the DSS products but could not provide the required service portion of the requirement.

Therefore, although authorized resellers were identified for the software products, the Government’s market research did not identify an alternative source capable of independently providing the complete requirement, including the required services. Based on the totality of the market research conducted, the Government determined that DSS is the only source capable of providing the complete DSS DataBridge requirement.

Other Facts: None.

Technical/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.

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Best Value Determination I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on an analysis of historical prices paid by the Government for the same services to verify DSS’s proposed price is fair and reasonable as per FAR 15.404-1(b)(2).

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Contracting Officer Certification/Approval I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. This contract action exceeds the simplified acquisition threshold, but does not exceed $900,000, therefore, the certification required by FAR 6.104-1(a)(12) serves as the Contracting Officer’s approval.

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