JA Wayfinding patient Engagement System Salem VAMC _Redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-22-00032695

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

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

Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price task order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for a wayfinding patient engagement system for the Salem VA Medical Center

(VAMC).

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Salem VAMC requires an expansion of their existing wayfinding patient engagement system for additional buildings on campus. The Contractor will provide all labor, material, and equipment to install hardware, software, configuration and testing for expanding the existing wayfinding patient engagement system. Specifically, the Contractor shall complete building numbers 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 75, 76, 77 and 168 and 144 (Chapel), and remainder of building 2 (second and third floor), building 4 (first floor), building 5 (first floor/auditorium). The existing patient engagement system utilizes the Virtual Bluetooth Low Energy (vBLE) cloud and includes Juniper/Mist networking access points used to locate and guide patients throughout the medical facility. The Optical Local Area Network uses Tellabs equipment to connect all of the access points and Medrics/Inpixion wayfinding uses app/mapping software to locate and guide patients using the optical networks and access points. The wayfinding patient engagement system must also be capable of tracking devices that violate configured policies and ban them from the network. For ongoing management of the system, a reporting portal shall track system usage and advanced analytics tools. Once the wayfinding app is enabled, the facility can proactively geo-fence welcome message boards as well as give patients the ability to find their way through the hospital with wayfinding technology.

This will give patients an all-in-one portal or hub to interact with when either outside or inside the VAMC. This will allow patients to interact via a robust mapping and app platform. The system is expected to go live within 9 months from date of award as Phase I is still not finished. The period of performance shall be 18 months from completion of the project, with two (2) 12-month option periods to provide licensing, internet connection, applications and service coverage, warranty, and support and maintenance for the patient engagement system. The estimated value of the proposed action is , inclusive of all option periods.

4. Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), entitled “Only one awardee is capable of providing the

Wayfinding Patient Engagement Solution for Salem VAMC supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this action is ThunderCat Technology, LLC (referred hereafter as ThunderCat), 1925 Isaac Newton Square #180, Reston, VA 20190. ThunderCat is currently working on Phase 1 for the Salem VAMC’s wayfinding patient engagement system. ThunderCat has been provided the company, Medrics’ proprietary mapping componentry and integration via an application (app) to effectively navigate Veterans through the VAMC. The proprietary integration is to the MIST infrastructure; the MIST access points have been installed throughout the Salem VAMC under the Phase 1 effort. VA requires access points and integration with these access points for additional access points that will be installed under Phase 2. The access points allows the app to show a map in real-time to the patient of where they currently are and where they need to go. Medrics made proprietary customizations to its componentry and app for the Salem VAMC. This is also the same proprietary mapping componentry and integration via an app utilized in Phase 1 of Salem VAMC’s wayfinding patient engagement system. Medrics confirmed to the Contracting Officer on July 29, 2022, that they do not sell to the Federal Government. Medrics explained that the app they provide to Thundercat uses proprietary location-based algorithms within the application for location-based services that works with the infrastructure for wayfinding and other functionalities that require location-based services to be enabled. Medrics confirmed that the configuration provided from Medrics to Thundercat is proprietary and would prevent Medrics from providing that configuration to anyone other than Thundercat or developing the integration needed for the Medrics mapping app to work at the Salem Phase 2 locations for another vendor besides Thundercat. Medrics confirmed that they use an algorithm that is created internally by them and integrated into the application by them. No other vendor can recreate this proprietary algorithm to successfully build off of the Phase 1 effort and existing application.

The solution utilizes an app to for navigating in the specified areas within the VAMC.

Guests will be able to navigate to any patient care area throughout the VAMC. The wayfinding patient system will also allow for push notifications to the patients through the application so the Salem VAMC can inform them of potential Flu / Covid-19 vaccinations, or other similar needs as deemed by the Salem VAMC, and direct them, if necessary, to those locations. The wayfinding patient engagement system will also capture Veteran’s appointment cards and personal information and use it’s unique and proprietary algorithm to navigate through the Salem VAMC’s various buildings to ensure that the Veterans arrive at their designated appointment location. The wayfinding system will improve the Veteran experience overall by providing directional signs and encompasses their experience by including their own personal information as soon as they walk through doors. The wayfinding system will be a seamless experience for Veterans. Since this is a patient engagement system that is based on a proprietary location-based algorithm, utilizing any other vendor to perform Phase 2 of this effort would require all work completed to date under Phase 1 to be duplicated. Specifically, due to the proprietary constraints listed above, use of any other vendor would necessitate a duplicative effort to re-map the entire campus and install an alternative mapping solution. VA estimates that this would take an estimated 18 months to implement an alternative wayfinding patient engagement system and at an estimated duplicative cost of $2.5M. These estimates of cost and time are based on the previous acquisition history in the current Phase 1 Contract. These duplicative costs would not be recovered through competition.

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 requirements. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 8.405-6(a)(2) the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. 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.

8. Market Research: A Request for Information (RFI) was issued on NASA SEWP on March 14, 2022, that included a draft Product Description and to identify qualified vendors, who are able to meet VA requirements for the Patient Engagement Expansion (Phase 2). The RFI asked for vendors to provide company information, a brief summary of their technical approach to meet VA”s requirements for this effort, experience with developing and installing a Wayfinding Patient Engagement System, and proof of prior operational situations they have performed. On March 21, 2022, the RFI closed, and one response was received by ThunderCat. No alternative solutions were proposed.

In March 2022 the requiring activity researched other wayfinding solutions including those from CenTrak Maps and CoreMobile, Inc. While both Cen Track Maps and CoreMobile were found to posess similar capabilities, no other alternative solution is compatible with the current phase 1 product in place and would require not only additional servers but the proprietary algorithm to be operational on the same platform, which as annotated above is not feasible. As such no alternative solution can avoid the duplication of cost and time as outlined in Section 5 of this justification.

Additional market research was completed in July 2022 by contacting Medrics to discuss the proprietary nature of the mapping componentry and integration via the application. Through an email dated July 29, 2022, Medrics confirmed to the Contracting Officer that they do not sell to the Federal Government. Medrics explained that the app provided to Thundercat uses proprietary location-based algorithms within the application for location-based services that works with the infrastructure for wayfinding and other functionalities that require location-based services to be enabled.

The specific configuration provided from Medrics to Thundercat is proprietary and prevents Medrics from developing the integration needed for the Medrics mapping app to work at the Salem Phase 2 locations for another vendor besides Thundercat.

9. Other Facts: N/A

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.

Name Tim Harris Date:

Title Electronic Mechanic 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 anticipated competition. Additionally, NASA SEWP V GWAC has already determined the prices on contract to be fair and reasonable. Finally, the successful quote will be compared to the Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE).

Date:

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.

Date:

Contracting Officer Signature: