P03 - Brand Name Justification VA-21-00017553 FINAL - Copy.pdf

Control Number: VA-21-00017553

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Acquisition Operations Technology Acquisition Center 1701 Director’s Blvd.

Austin, TX 78744

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed price delivery order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for seven (7) site licenses of brand name DSS Consult Tracking Management (CTM) Plus software and associated services and support. Currently, the brand name DSS CTM software effectively supports management of both clinical and community care consults and follow up orders for return appointments, which are called Return to Clinic (RTC) orders that support the Ensure no Veteran is left behind initiative. DSS CTM software is at end of support and Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 15 requires seven (7) site licenses for brand name DSS CTM Plus software to continue enhancing its ability to monitor and track consults and RTCs within their facilities.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), VISN 15 requires a consult tracking software that works specifically with Veterans Integrated System Technology Architecture (VistA) and Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) – the VA’s electronic medical record.

The VA requires the software to be able to find all un-closed consults and RTCs so that they can be reviewed, reworked, reprocessed or dispositioned. The VA also requires delivery of actionable patient information and medical knowledge into the workflow of clinicians and front-line schedulers at the point of care. This will enable front line staff to intervene faster and more efficiently, provide better and safer care. Better decisions alter the healthcare experience and outcome for each patient while reducing costs. The VA requires single access point to this web‐based software that streamlines workflow and provides program administrative oversight to a complicated system, thus ensuring each Veteran’s consult and RTC needs are scheduled quickly and follow up is performed in a timely manner. The required brand name DSS CTM Plus is a VistA integrated software that provides real‐time, up‐to date dashboard views of the status of all consults and RTCs, displayed by service line. Users can take necessary actions on the consult or RTC order from within the dashboard without going to CPRS as all data is maintained in VistA in the appropriate files. This software will assure that no consult or RTC is forgotten and that the patient is taken care of. The software package available from DSS includes software license, installation, education/training, maintenance, customer service and help desk support.. The period of performance shall be February 1, 2021 through January 31, 2022, plus two 12-month option periods. The estimated price of the proposed action is $1,273,773.84.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(a)(4), the following brand name requirement is being justified and approved as an exception to

Control Number: : VA-21-00017553 fair opportunity under the statutory authority of Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), entitled “Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized”. However; the requested CTM Plus licensure thru DSS is available through both SDVOSB and small business on

SEWP.

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on extensive market research as described in paragraph 8 of this document, it was determined that only brand name DSS CTM Plus software can meet VA’s requirements. VA has one of the largest patient and non-patient record data sets in the United States. VISN 15 requires a solution that enables staff members the ability to analyze outstanding consults and RTC orders in real time to identify those beneficiaries that require follow-up contact to achieve the goal of ensuring no Veteran is left behind. The current DSS CTM software that is fielded throughout VA and in VISN 15 specifically will no longer be supported as of January 31, 2021. Without use of this software, VISN 15’s open consults and unscheduled RTCs would continue to be a major issue for all Veterans and VA Healthcare Providers within the agency. Utilizing this brand name DSS CTM Plus software will provide the unique tool to mitigate these concerns. Only the brand name DSS CTM Plus software can retrieve the data from VISTA/CPRS. This software is the only existing software that can be utilized with the scheduling and consult management systems already in place in the VA. No other existing software is compatible with both VistA and CPRS systems. DSS developed the proprietary CTM software to integrate with VistA and CPRS. The use of any other software would require VA to build customized tools, scripts, and processes to utilize a non-DSS solution. VA would have to expend more money and resources to acquire a totally different software license package to replace the current DSS software license product and perform integration of any other solution. The estimated cost to perform integration work for any other solution is $1,500,000.00 and is estimated to take a minimum of one year. These costs are based on previous integration efforts of similar size. These costs would not be expected to be recovered through competition. Additionally, based on extensive market research, no other commercial software products interface with the existing VA infrastructure. Any other solution would require significant modification or re-design and would not avoid the estimated time and effort identified above in order to integrate with VA systems.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the Section 8 of this document. This effort did not yield any valid additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. However, it was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for the DSS CTM Plus software . In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders.

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 competition in future actions.

8. Market Research: Market Research was conducted in January 2021 via web-based searches for comparable software. While the VA technical experts identified other consult tracking software solutions such as Capterra’s Workfront, Acuity Scheduling, and PatientTrak, no other solution provided the functionality to interface with current VA infrastructure including VistA/CPRS or could avoid the time and effort associated with integration detailed in Section 5 of this justification.

In addition, the Contract Specialist issued an RFI notice on SEWP in December 2020.

The notice also included the Product Description and salient characteristics required for the software/licensing products and requested information on other available products that would meet the VA’s requirement. The notice also included the Product Description required for the software/licensing products and requested information on other available products that would meet the VA’s requirement. The government received two responses from the Sources Sought posting, neither of which proposed an alternative solution.

The first response was from the incumbent contractor Minburn Technology Group, LLC, a Small Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB); that stated they could perform this upgrade and reply to the government’s solicitation when posted.

Minburn is an authorized reseller of DSS Inc. products and solutions. DSS, Inc. is the sole publisher of the CTM Plus software. Only DSS, Inc. or authorized resellers, can provide the software license, maintenance, implementation/training of the software.

The second response was submitted by GMC Tek, LLC, a small Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB). GMC Tek, LLC, stated they will be Prime for this opportunity and will be teaming with Document Storage Systems, Inc. (DSS), and going forward will reference Team GMC Tek. They also noted that stated they could perform this upgrade and reply to the government’s solicitation when posted.

Furthermore, the CS contacted DSS to check to see if any other authorized resellers existed on other platforms to include the commercial marketplace and/or GSA. DSS informed the CS that they have only two authorized resellers on SEWP. Both resellers responded to the RFI as outlined above. DSS did state that they do hold a GSA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contract and if the VA were to pursue that platform. If so, it would only result in one response from DSS directly as a large business. DSS also provided this statement: “DSS is a company that develops software for the VistA Electronic Health Record (EHR) and is a 3rd party integrator for other vendors to work with VistA. We also provide a VistA based EHR to commercial customers that includes add-on modules. CTM Plus is an example of software that DSS created for VistA environments. It is fully integrated to the VA’s VistA system (and other software tools utilized by the VA such as CPRS, Consult Toolbox, and VistA Scheduling Enhancement (VSE)). The VistA integration we provide is real-time and bi-directional. As many VA facilities have contracted for the license of CTM Plus, we have added many features that align with the VA’s business processes and policies around Consult Management.

In addition, DSS has added features specific to VA’s Community Care workflows and processes”.

Based on this market research, it was determined that only brand name DSS CTM Plus can meet the VA’s requirements. The RFI yielded two responses on SEWP in two separate socio-economic classes. One is a SDVOSB and the other is a Woman Owned Small Business. It was determined that this requirement will be made available to small businesses on SEWP by soliciting Groups B-SDVOSB and C.

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.

Genevieve Joson-Katchaluba Date: 14 January 2021

VISN 15 Deputy Business Officer Signature: __________________

11. Determination of Best Value: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on NASA SEWP GWAC prices already being determined to be fair and reasonable. Additional price competition is expected among authorized resellers for this action. Further price analysis, to include an analysis of proposed level of effort and mix of labor, will be conducted and subsequent negotiations held as necessary. Additionally, price discounts will be sought.

Mary Accomando Date: 14 January 2021

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.

Mary Accomando Date: 14 January 2021

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ___________________

Approval

Genevieve Joson-Katchaluba

In my role as the procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of only one source for DSS CTM Plus software and associated services and support on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the authority cited in Section 4 above and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

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