Redacted Brand Name JA - Vocera.pdf

Vocera Wireless Communication System Expansion

CONTROL NUMBER VA-25-00094338

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 delivery order under a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the procurement of brand name Vocera Communication System expansion solution, which is now part of Stryker, to include hardware, software, maintenance, implementation, and support services, as well as a warranty period expected not to exceed three years for use at Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 7, Veterans Health Administration, VA Atlanta Healthcare System locations such as the Joseph Maxwell Cleland Atlanta VA Medical Center, Trinka Davis Veterans Village, and Fort McPherson VA Clinic.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, VISN 7, Veterans Health Administration, VA Atlanta Healthcare System has a requirement to expand its existing Vocera infrastructure at the Joseph Maxwell Cleland Atlanta VA Medical Center, as well as extend services to new locations at Trinka Davis Veterans Village and Fort McPherson VA Clinic. The Vocera Communication System solution shall expand the existing infrastructure by incorporating wireless system wearable communication badges for hands-free and voice-controlled communication. The Vocera Communication System solution expansion will include 826 communication badges, a badge configuration workstation, software licenses, and maintenance support. These badges enable hospital staff to carry a device that allows them to wirelessly communicate with one another and with patients, eliminating the need for a nursing call station or an anchoring communication equipment.

The Vocera wireless communication devices function hands-free via voice prompts delivered in naturally spoken words. This is crucial for the Joseph Maxwell Cleland Atlanta VA Medical Center, Trinka Davis Veterans Village, and Fort McPherson VA Clinic facilities because it increases medical personnel’s mobility, practicality, and productivity in providing services to Veterans. The Vocera Communication System expansion will be integrated with the existing Joseph Maxwell Cleland Atlanta VA Medical Center nurse call system, allowing for two-way communication among nurses, patients, and physicians, as well as the addition of Trinka Davis Veterans Village and Fort McPherson VA Clinic facilities. The Vocera Communication System solution shall allow voice calls to individuals, roles, and teams or groups on a priority basis to facilitate routine and urgent communication needs without knowing who is on shift or what number to call. Calls can be automatically escalated to a predefined call flow path, ensuring that no calls go unanswered.

The Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) and/or Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) will be used for one-way communication between VistA and wireless devices. This one-way communication will promptly notify medical staff of critical lab and urgent orders filed into VistA/CPRS, reducing the likelihood of missed or delayed responses to critical lab results and urgent orders. This expansion will enable hands-free, voice-activated calling, allowing medical staff to answer critical calls while performing other tasks or when encumbered in decontamination clothing in an isolation room. Furthermore, using hands-free and voice-activated communication devices reduces the danger of infection and contamination from physical contact with devices. The Vocera Communication System expansion will expedite and streamline critical medical services for Veterans by integrating with the existing VA Atlanta Healthcare System, intravenous pump alarms, patient calls, and bed exit alarms and routing them to the appropriate provider for immediate attention. This will save nursing time waiting for providers to return to the nursing station because the physician can call the nurse directly.

In accordance with VA Directive 6512, effective October 12, 2017, VA sensitive information transmitted via wireless technologies must have Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 compliance encryption approved and validated.

This ensures that VA sensitive information is properly protected and secure when using wireless devices. The expansion must be FIPS 140-2 compliant because it will enable the wireless transfer of sensitive medical information. The Contractor will offer implementation and support services to build correct processes, database maintenance, end user training, and administrative training of the solution. All delivery, installation, configuration, testing, go-live, and training shall be completed within nine months of contract award. The period of performance for this action is 12 months from the date of award, which covers the initial delivery, installation, and acceptance of the Vocera system, including maintenance support. VA also requires a maximum warranty period of three years; the warranty is expected to consist of a one-year basic commercial warranty and a two-year extended warranty. The total estimated value of the proposed action is

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 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”.

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in Section 8 of this document, it was concluded that competition is available among authorized resellers for the required brand name Vocera. The Government requires the Vocera Communication System expansion solution, which includes hardware, software, maintenance, implementation, and support services, as well as a warranty period expected not to exceed three years, to expand and strengthen the current infrastructure at the VA Atlanta Healthcare System locations listed above in order to provide the nursing staff with the communication they require to care for the Veterans. The current infrastructure is equipped and operated by Vocera Communication System. Due to proprietary software and firmware source code, only the Vocera Communication System solution can build on the existing infrastructure.

Vocera holds the exclusive rights to its software and firmware, including those from the existing Vocera Healthcare equipment in use, and only Vocera has access to the source code and other proprietary data of its solution. Because the Vocera Communication System infrastructure is proprietary, using another brand name solution would necessitate a complete replacement of the existing Vocera Communication System.

This would require the Government to replace the existing infrastructure, which includes a call manager integrator server and associated hardware and software, resulting in an estimated two-year delay to remove the existing Vocera Communication System infrastructure and implement a replacement solution. The estimated duplicated cost of $2.5 million for the procurement, installation, integration, testing, training, and validation of a new system, and a separate infrastructure network, which will necessitate cabling across the hospital and its affiliated campuses, totaling approximately 267,018 square feet, resulting in an additional 8-to-12-month delay in installation and validation of the new system on top of the 2-year delay for a complete system replacement referenced above. These estimates are based on previous acquisition history, which would not be recoverable through competition. Furthermore, no alternative solution can meet VA’s functional requirements.

Vocera’s Communication System offers wearable wireless hand-free voice activated communication badges that are compatible with the existing infrastructure. This functionality is critical to improving medical staff services for the Veterans. Furthermore, only Vocera wearable communication badges have FIPS 140-2 certification for wireless voice activation, which is unique among voice activated communication badges. Without the FIPS 140-2 certification, the Information Systems Security Officer will not permit the installation of this communication technology on the VA’s infrastructure. Finally, Vocera’s software is a proprietary product. As a result, only Vocera or its authorized resellers can provide maintenance and support for their software products. Vocera branded products include proprietary software that is essential to ensure that all updates and patches are properly pushed through the deployed software, ensuring proper configuration. Access to this software’s proprietary code is essential to verify that all services available through the software are properly configured. Only Vocera and its authorized resellers can provide knowledge base specific implementation and support services for the Vocera expansion solution because both require access to necessary proprietary code and technical data.

If the Vocera expansion solution is not procured, VA’s existing Vocera Communication System will degrade over time, compromising its effectiveness and reliability. VA Atlanta Healthcare System facilities will continue to struggle to maintain appropriate levels of communication and patient care, and essential patient information will be jeopardized more as a result of human error and delays. Furthermore, the lack of wearable, hands-free, and voice activated communication badges increases the risk of contamination within the hospital, and response times to medical emergencies such as cardiopulmonary arrest, inclement weather, bomb threats, or active shooter scenarios are delayed, resulting in unnecessary loss of life.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in Section 8 of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that could meet the Government’s requirements. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers of brand name Vocera Communication System expansion solution, including hardware, software, maintenance, implementation, and support services, as well as a two-year warranty extension. 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. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.301, 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), and 16.505(a)(4)(iii), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Contract Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, 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: The Government technical experts conducted market research from June 2024 through June 2025 to ascertain whether any other source except Vocera could expand the existing VA Atlanta Healthcare System Vocera Communication System solution. The Government technical experts thoroughly reviewed product information for similar communication systems from alternative manufacturers including those from Cisco Systems, OnPage, American Messaging, TigerConnect, and Spok using web searches. While these manufacturers provide general communication capabilities they do not offer FIPS 140-2 compliant, wearable wireless hands-free voice activated communication devices that are compatible with the existing Vocera infrastructure at VA Atlanta Healthcare System locations. These devices are critical for improving patient care and safety. The products from the other indicated manufacturers did not meet the requirements for seamless integration with the current Vocera environment. In addition to lacking integration compatibility, the alternative manufacturers do not possess the proprietary source code, data rights, or system architecture access necessary to provide the full spectrum of maintenance services required for the Vocera environment. This includes delivering manufacturer authorized software updates, system patches, configuration changes, bug fixes, and hardware/firmware support. Without such rights and access, these vendors cannot ensure system stability, cybersecurity compliance, or continuity of operations in a mission critical healthcare environment. As a result, only brand-name Vocera can integrate with the current system while also providing manufacturer-certified maintenance, technical support, and system enhancements required to sustain and expand the current Communication System infrastructure, as well as meet the Government’s requirements.

Additional market research was conducted in July 2025 utilizing the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider and Market Research Look-up tools, resulting in multiple prospective contract holders who are resellers of the required brand name Vocera Communication System expansion solution. Several of these contract holders are certified Service- Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) concerns. Furthermore, the NASA SEWP V GWAC features a dynamic catalog where line items can be added based on customer requests; hence, as long as the required item or service is within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC, items and services can be added to the catalog on a daily basis. This requirement was determined to be within the scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC in a separate determination. As a result of the aforementioned market research, there is a reasonable expectation of competition on the NASA SEWP V GWAC among two or more SDVOSB concerns for the brand name Vocera expansion solution, which includes hardware, software, maintenance, implementation, and support services, as well as a two-year warranty extension. This effort will be released to all SDVOSBs in groups B, C, and D on the NASA SEWP V GWAC.

9. Other Facts: None.