JA - FAR Part 6 CIS-ARK FINAL_Redacted.pdf

CIS/ARK Analytics Decision Support Solution Effort Control Number VA-21-00075525

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics

Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source action is for a six-month firm-fixed price (FFP) effort with one six-month option period for a Clinical Information System/Anesthesia Record Keeping (CIS/ARK) Analytics/Decision Support Solution with Bitscopic, Inc., (herein referred to as Bitscopic) 715 Colorado Ave, Palo Alto, California (CA) 94303.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The proposed action is for continued access and support services for the CIS/ARK Analytics/Decision Support Solution that performs extracts, report customization, and analytics services to aid in the improvement of quality of care for surgical and critically ill patients for VISN 21. The Contractor shall provide a solution that will use multiple VA data sources including Picis, VistA, Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW), Healthcare-Associated Infections and Influenza Surveillance System (HAIISS) Data Warehouse (HDW) and other relational databases. This support solution shall allow multiple user groups including clinicians and clinical and business analysts the ability to create reports, analyze data, and facilitate ongoing quality improvement efforts in addressing: morbidity and mortality for surgical and critically ill patients, and the optimization of efficiency within Operating Room (OR), Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU), Intermediate Intensive Care Unit (IICU) and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) settings. The Contractor shall also provide project management and analytics/reporting support services to the VISN 21 team, training and help desk support services. The period of performance of the proposed effort shall consist of one six-month base period, one six-month option period to continue VA’s access to the solution, and optional tasks for refresher training and Picis interface connection. The overall period of performance of the contract will not exceed twelve months.The total estimated value of the proposed action is $1,021,992.00, inclusive of the option period and optional tasks.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 entitled, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on the market research as described in Section 8 of this justification, the proposed source for this action is Bitscopic, 715 Colorado Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94303. The existing infrastructure is comprised of 12 servers that have been configured to interoperate with the CIS/ARK Analytics/Decision Support Solution which is proprietary to Bitscopic. Solutions from other vendors are not interchangeable nor interoperable with VA’s current infrastructure. If another solution were procured, it would require

Control Number VA-21-00075525 decommissioning of the current infrastructure environment and re-configuration and implementation of a new server infrastructure which would lead to unacceptable downtime thereby resulting in degradation of patient care and potential patient safety issues. In order for VA to have a fully functional system, any other vendor would need to implement the necessary infrastructure for a system to be functional which includes the following: new software and servers, a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), and a Memorandum of Understanding/Interconnection Security Agreement (MOU/ISA) for remote support. Approval of necessary agreements can be a lengthy process, which is required before substantive implementation work can even begin.

This would also require compliance with Enterprise Risk Analysis (ERA) requirements and required significant collaboration with the technical and functional resources in VA to gain significant knowledge of and successfully integrate to the VistA and Picis CIS/ARK systems. Additional time would also be needed for server creation/installation and software installation, data migration and mapping, and testing and validation. Lastly, training sessions would be required to educate the application users on how to navigate a new user interface, as well as rebuild existing reports in the new system. Another source would require a learning curve while gaining familiarity with the solution and populating necessary reports. Further, the Government estimates it would incur upfront duplication costs of approximately $516,600.00 by awarding to another source. This comprehensively includes the costs for new software, implementation, database fees and migration, new servers, required approvals, and training. Additionally, this entire process is estimated to take approximately nine to twelve months to complete. These estimates are based on previous acquisition history and these estimated duplicative costs would not be recovered through competition.

Based on the above, if this sole-source award was not made to Bitscopic access to critical data, analytics, and decision support would not be available, which would have a substantial negative impact on patient care and patient safety in VISN 21.

Additionally, mandatory reports would not be able to be generated to meet national VA reporting requirements.

For the reasons noted above, only Bitscopic is capable of meeting the Government’s requirements to continue to provide a CIS/ARK solution and support services.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s current requirements. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. Additionally, the proposed action will be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities Page in accordance with FAR

5.201. Any proposals that are received shall be evaluated.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the market place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Technology Acquisition Center (TAC) issued a Request for Information (RFI) on May 21, 2021 via the beta.sam.gov/Contract Opportunities website to ascertain if there were any other sources that could meet the Government’s requirements. The RFI and Draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) included a detailed description of the requirement and requested that interested parties provide their respective capabilities to perform the CIS/ARK Analytics/Decision Support Solution. When the RFI closed on May 28, 2021, responses were received from 12 sources; however, while some of the respondents may have the capability to provide similar products/services, none of the respondents was deemed capable of meeting the Government’s current requirements without a total overhaul to the current VA infrastructure in VISN 21 due to the interoperability requirements detailed in Section 5 of this justification.

Changing to a new Contractor would require the existing servers and software to be decommissioned and replaced with servers that meet the new Contractor’s specification and are installed with the new Contractor’s proprietary software, which would require significant lead time to be operational. As a result, it was determined that only Bitscopic, Inc., is capable of meeting the Government’s requirements.

9. Other Facts: None.

10. 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.

Hannah Behm Date:_______________________________

VISN 21 Biomedical Engineer Signature: ___________________________

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on utililiziation of appropriate price/cost analysis techniques in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 15.

Heather Utt Date: ________________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

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

Heather Utt Date: ________________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the Clinical Information System/Anesthesia Record Keeping (CIS/ARK) Analytics/Decision Support Solution additional work modification, on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the authority cited in paragraph 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Date: ____________ Signature: __________________________ Philip Weckesser Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics