This Sources Sought Notice is for planning purposes only and shall not be considered as an invitation for bid, request for quotation, request for proposal, or as an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products and/or services. Your response to this Sources Sought Notice will be treated as information only. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise because of contractor submission of responses to this announcement or the Government use of such information. This request does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated, or received for this effort. The information provided may be used by the Department of Veterans Affairs in developing its acquisition approach, statement of work/statement of objectives and performance specifications. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. The Government does not intend to award a contract based on this Sources Sought Notice or to otherwise pay for the information submitted in response to this Sources Sought Notice. The submission of pricing, capabilities for planning purposes, and other market information is highly encouraged and allowed under this Sources Sought Notice in accordance with (IAW) FAR Part 15.201(e). The purpose of this Sources Sought Notice announcement is for market research to make appropriate acquisition decisions and to gain knowledge of potential qualified Service- Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses, Veteran Owned Small Businesses, 8(a), HubZone and other Small Businesses interested and capable of providing the products and/or services described below. Documentation of technical expertise must be presented in sufficient detail for the Government to determine that your company possesses the necessary functional area expertise and experience to compete for this acquisition. Responses to this notice shall include the following: (a) Company Name; (b) Address; (c) Point of Contact; (d) Phone, Fax, and Email; (e) UEI Number; (f) Cage Code; (g) Tax ID Number; (h) Type of Small Business, e.g., Services Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, Veteran Owned Small business, 8(a), HUBZone, Women Owned Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business, or Small Business HUBZone business, etc.; (i) State if your business has an FSS contract with GSA, VA NAC, NASA SEWP, or any other federal contract, that can be utilized to procure the requirement listed below and provide the contract number; and (j) Must provide a capability statement that addresses the organization s qualifications and ability to perform as a contractor for the work described below. Requirement: The VA Heartland Network 15 Contracting Office located at 3450 South 4th Street, Leavenworth, KS, 66048-5055 is seeking a potential qualified contractor to provide a Cost-Per-Test (CPT) Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) for Automated Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) Instrumentation. It is the intent of the Government to award a contract to a single contractor for Automated Coagulation Instrumentation for VISN 15 Heartland Network to include Kansas City VA Medical Center, Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital, Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center, Dwight D. Eisenhower VA Medical Center, Center, located in Kansas City, Missouri, and the John J. Cochran Veterans Hospital, Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center, St. Louis VA Medical Center Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis VA Medical Center John Cochran Division, Marion VA Medical Center, Evansville Health Care Center, John J. Pershing VA Medical Center and VA Cape Girardeau Health Care Center. This is a brand name or equal requirement. Please see the Statement of Work for more specifics and details. The North American Industry Classification System Code (NAICS Code) is 334516. (Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing), size standard 1,000 Employees. Based on this information, please indicate whether your company would be a Large or Small Business and have a socio-economic designation as a Small Business, VOSB or SDVOSB. Important Information: The Government is not obligated to, nor will it pay for or reimburse any costs associated with responding to this source sought synopsis request. This notice shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract, nor does it restrict the Government to an acquisition approach. The Government will in no way be bound to this information if any solicitation is issued. Currently a total set-aside for Service- Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business firms is anticipated based on the Veterans Administration requirement with Public Law 109-461, Section 8127 Veterans Benefit Act. However, if response by Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business firms proves inadequate, an alternate set- aside or full and open may be used. Responses to this notice shall be submitted via email to Erika Kobulnicky at
[email protected]. Telephone responses will not be accepted. Responses must be received no later than Friday, December 5, 2025, at 7:00AM CST. If a solicitation is issued it shall be announced at a later date, and all interested parties must respond to that solicitation announcement separately from the responses to this sources sought. Responses to this sources sought notice are not a request to be added to a prospective bidders list or to receive a copy of the solicitation. STATEMENT OF REQUIREMENT VISN 15- HEARTLAND NETWORK Automated Erythrocyte Sedimentation Device SCOPE OF PROCUREMENT: It is the intent of VISN 15 Pathology & Laboratory Services to establish a Cost per Test agreement for Automated Erythrocyte Sedimentation Instrumentation. New equipment shall be acquired for each of the clinical laboratories located at the VISN facilities listed in Attachment A. Facilities within VISN 15 may be added or deleted by supplemental agreement of the Government and the Contractor. As requirements change, facilities within VISN 15 (Attachment A) may be added or deleted. Pricing to add new sites and/or equipment would be based on the costs spread out over the life of the remaining contract. Additional tests/reagents/instrumentation may be added to the BPA as new technology becomes available on the market and added to the base FSS contract. VISN 15 intends to establish the base year of the agreement for the period of 05/01/2026 through 04/30/2027. This will be a single award, firm-fixed price with 5 ordering periods. The instrument shall have random access capability (if discrete testing is required) and be able to simultaneously perform the complete testing as described below meet the performance characteristics for accuracy and precision as defined by the 1988 Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA) and the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). A total equipment footprint that when installed in the laboratory shall not impact on the functionality/operations of that laboratory. Equipment must maintain or, preferably, reduce the number of workstations or overall labor required to accomplish the required testing by each laboratory. If Contractor offers a family of analyzers, the technical evaluation panel will determine if instrumentation proposed meets needs of using facility. The Contractor is required to provide a continuously stocked inventory of reagents, standards, controls, supplies, disposables and any other materials required to properly perform tests on the equipment such that equipment operations are not interrupted. These items shall be of the highest quality, sensitivity, specificity and tested to assure precision and accuracy. Expiration dates must be clearly marked on reagent, standard, and control containers. Unexpected changes in methodology/technology shall be at the expense of the Contractor. Special handling for emergency orders of supplies: In the event that the supplies are found to be defective and unsuitable for use with the Contractor s equipment, or the Contractor has failed to comply with the requirements for routine supply delivery, the Contractor is required to deliver the supplies within 24 hours of receipt of a verbal order for emergency delivery. If either circumstance has occurred, the Contractor shall deliver to the Government site in the most expeditious manner possible without additional cost to the Government, the necessary consumables in sufficient quantity as required to allow operation of the Contractor s equipment for one week (under normal Government test load volume). If additional requests for emergency supply delivery are required by the Government, they shall be honored by the Contractor until the arrival at the laboratory of the monthly standing order/routine supplies delivery. Estimated volumes of reagents can be found in Attachment A. Validation of new equipment must complete 30 days before expiration of current contract (April 30, 2026). DEFINITIONS: Cost per Patient Reportable Result (CPRR)- as defined in the Federal Supply Schedule FSC Group 66, Part III, Cost-Per-Test Clinical Laboratory Analyzers - Contractors are required to provide a price for a reportable patient result. The per patient reportable result price shall include costs covering: (1) 5-year equipment use, (2) all reagents, standards, quality controls, supplies, consumable/disposable items, parts, accessories and any other items required for the proper operation of the Contractor s equipment and necessary for the generation of a patient reportable result. This per patient reportable result price shall also encompass all costs associated with dilution, repeat and confirmatory testing required to produce a single patient reportable result. It shall also include the material to perform as well as all other costs associated with quality control, calibration and correlation study testing that is prescribed by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). (3) all necessary maintenance to keep the equipment in good operating condition (This element includes both preventive maintenance and emergency repairs) and (4) training for Government personnel. Contractors shall provide delivery, installation and removal of equipment at no additional charge. Business Associate Agreement (BAA)- A business associate is an entity, including an individual, company, or organization that, on behalf of VHA, performs or assists in the performance of functions or activities involving the use or disclosure of PHI, or that provides certain services involving the disclosure of protected health information (PHI). VHA is a covered entity under the HIPAA Privacy Rule (Privacy Rule). HIPAA regulations require VHA to execute HIPAA-compliant BAAs with certain entities that receive, uses, or discloses VHA PHI to perform some activity for VHA. These BAAs obligate VHA business associates to provide the same protections and safeguards to PHI that is required of VHA under the Privacy Rule. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS: Primary analyzer(s) Base equipment offered that shall fully support the scope of operations (minimal requirements). Depending upon the technical functionality and the capabilities of the individual manufacturer s instrumentation, one analyzer or multiple analyzers may be required to meet the productivity specifications defined herein. In those instances, the additional analyzer(s) shall, likewise, be considered primary instrumentation and shall meet all the technical specifications of this solicitation. Those additional analyzers(s) offered meeting the definition of a primary analyzer may serve as a back-up analyzer (see definition below) and shall replace the requirement for offering that category of equipment. Back-up Analyzer does NOT apply; equipment required in support of operations for the VA laboratories in the event the primary analyzer(s) becomes non-operational/non-functional. This category of equipment (loaners) shall only be operated during periods of time when the primary instrumentation is not available for use. As such, the requirements for consumable supplies, i.e. reagents, quality control material, calibrators, etc., shall be minimal and corollary to the successful operation of the primary instrumentation. Additional primary analyzers required for the performance of daily workload are not considered back-ups for the purposes of consumables, reagents, etc. Operational/Technical Features -The instrumentation offered shall have the following: Testing Instrumentation - The testing instrumentation must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and shall have the following: The capability of performing analysis of Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) The capability and throughput to meet the volume and service demands as defined in Attachment A. QC data management system and includes Levy-Jennings graphs. Analyzer must have the ability to capture & store QC data. Capability to detect and alert operator of out-of-range quality control results via flagged results on QC printout and visual alerts on display monitor. Ability to participate in peer data management system for quality control results. On board reagent inventory management must have: A system that provides reagent data to include but not limited to lot number and expiration date of reagents and quality control. Barcoding of reagents. On board reagent stability sufficient to accommodate both high and low volume use. Primary tube sampling from evacuated whole blood EDTA collection tubes from various manufacturers. The ability to continuously load patient specimens. The ability to detect short samples. The ability to perform testing on samples with 0.5 ml of whole blood. The ability to perform mixing of samples on board the analyzer. The ability to measure directly the intensity of red cell aggregation. Hardware Features- The instrumentation shall have the following: All monitors/screens will clearly display information in all light conditions. A printer that has the capability of printing a patient report with patient demographic information. that includes minimally the patient s name and accession or unique identifier number (UID). Interface Requirements A bi-directional, bar-coded computer interface compatible with the current VA laboratory information system and future system, Oracle Health (Formerly known as Cerner). The fully operational interface (both hardware and software) shall be immediately available for implementation to the VA computerized hospital information system Equipment must be able to support multiple barcode formats (Code 39, Code 128) that may be enabled concurrently. Equipment must accept, at a minimum, 10 characters in specimen identifier that is alphanumeric that may be enabled concurrently. A barcode reading accuracy rate of 99% or greater. The Contractor shall be responsible for providing all hardware required for the connection, implementation, and operation of the interface to the universal interface and any incremental fee that is required each time an instrument is added to an existing universal interface system (see Attachment A). Analyzer must have a bi-directional HL7 interface with Dual TCP/IP capability. The vendor shall provide assistance with setting up Autoverification through Data Innovations, and work with the Laboratory LIMs to interface VISTA LIS with vendor provided instruments. Provide remote or onsite guidance on validation techniques and assist troubleshooting. Provide support and guidance during modifications of final Autoverification build. For example, modifying rules logic cutoff based on evolving SOPs. The Contractor shall provide any and all necessary software support for ensuring that successful interfacing has been established. Specific requirements for the communication of the data streams will be unique to the instrument system involved and dictated by the manufacturer itself. Information necessary to make the determination for type and amount of interfacing equipment is supplied in Attachment A. If a site already has a universal interface box, the Contractor is responsible for everything leading up to the box including any incremental fee required to add additional equipment (e.g. licenses, ports/cards, cables, software, etc.) to the universal interfacing system. If a site does not have a universal interface and one is needed to optimally interface the instrument, then the Contractor is responsible for the acquisition of the universal interface box and everything else needed to connect with VA computerized hospital information system. If there are any software upgrades in the instrument during its life, the Contractor is responsible for seeing that the interface can accommodate any changes in the data stream going to the VA computerized hospital information system. Analyzer must function using an operating system that is approved to connect to the VA computer systems. Vendor must complete the following documentation that is attached to the solicitation: 6550 Pre-Procurement Assessment MDS2 ACL Communication Profile Current ISA/MOU and BAA with the VA, if applicable Contractor shall provide that are applicable for remote connection to the interface system used to manage the testing system. Method Performance/Validation Requirements Method performance/comparison shall be completed by and at the expense of the Contractor, shall include linearity material and reagents, and be consistent with current CLSI guidelines and related documents, College of American Pathologists (CAP) standards and Federal regulations. Correlation studies for each analyte. A minimum of 40 samples spanning the reportable range, shall be run by the present and the proposed method. In systems where multiple sampling modes exist, mode to mode correlation studies must also be performed. Contractor shall analyze results and provide statistical data to support acceptance of the new method for above studies. Statistics shall consist of at least mean, bias, slope, y-intercept, correlation coefficient, ROC analysis, and meet current standards defined by CLSI. Analytical Measurement Range (AMR) Validation shall be performed on proposed instrument(s) for each analyte to validate the reportable range. The material must have values which are near the low, mid, and high values of the AMR and be of appropriate matrix for the clinical specimens assayed by that method. A minimum 5-point linearity analysis that adheres to the Beer-Lambert Law and spans the entire range shall be performed as a minimum. Precision studies using normal and abnormal control material. This shall consist of a within-run precision study of 10 normal and 10 abnormal controls and a day-to-day precision study of normal controls and abnormal controls for 10 days (maybe run twice a day) for a total of 20 values per level of control. Intra-VISN facility variations should be kept at an absolute minimum. Sensitivity. Sensitivity may be validated concurrently with correlation studies. Mathematical calculations to determine efficiency, sensitivity, false positive rate, and false negative rate are applied. Specificity Studies. A review of product literature and assay inserts to determine any adverse effects for increased bilirubin, hemolysis, lipemia, or other interrupting substances. Reference Range A reference range must be determined for each test following CLSI Guidelines. Samples used for the reference range study must be representative of the patient population being tested. One of the following protocols shall be used: A verification of the manufacturer s suggested reference range may be performed as long as the suggested range is based on a comparable population of test subjects. The manufacturer shall provide specific information defining how the suggested range was determined. A minimum of 20 reference individuals shall be used to verify the manufacturer s range. Any apparent outliers should be discarded, and new specimens obtained to provide a statistically valid verification. If the suggested manufacturer s range is not appropriate for the patient population, a reference range shall be established. Establishing a reference must follow CLSI guidelines. This requires a minimum of 120 reference individuals to be used to establish a reference range. The reference interval should be determined using the nonparametric method. OTHER REQUIREMENTS: Alert/Notification of any delays in shipment as well as any or all technical advisory/recalls/alerts, prior to or simultaneously with field alerts should be forwarded to the designated individuals determined at contract award. Support Features-The equipment models being offered shall be in current production as of the date this offer is submitted. Current production shall mean that the clinical laboratory analyzer model is being offered as new equipment. Discontinued models that are only being made available as remanufactured equipment are not acceptable. Commercial marketing. The equipment models being offered shall be in current production as of the date this offer is submitted. For purposes of this solicitation, current production shall mean that the clinical laboratory analyzer model is being offered as new equipment. Discontinued models that are only being made available as remanufactured equipment are not acceptable. Commercial offerings. The Contractor shall provide any additional support material that is routinely provided to equivalent commercial customers and assists in regulatory compliance, e.g. Computer disc containing their procedure manual in CLSI format or an online procedure manual in the instrument software. Start-Up Reagents. The Contractor shall provide all reagents, calibrators, controls, consumable/disposable items, parts, accessories and any other item included on the list of supplies defined in the Federal Supply Schedule contract and required to establish instruments for operation for performance of acceptance testing. The Contractor shall perform, to the satisfaction of the Government, all validation studies including precision, method comparison with current analyzer, accuracy (recovery), calibration verification, verification of reference interval, and determination of sensitivity and specificity at no cost to the Government. The Contractor shall perform all of the statistical analysis as stated in the Method Performance/Validation section above and report data in an organized, clearly comprehensible format. Training. Upon Installation: The Contractor shall provide advanced (key operator) instrument training program for at least two operators per facility at no charge to the Government that is coordinated with and timely with the equipment installation, sufficient to the size and scope of the facility s services and minimally equivalent to the terms and conditions for training defined in the Contractor s Federal Supply Schedule FSC Group 66, Part III, Cost-Per-Test Clinical Laboratory Analyzers contract. This shall include training on the operation of the system, data manipulation, and basic troubleshooting and repair. Thereafter: The Contractor shall provide training for minimally one operator per facility per year at the discretion of the Government for each model of instrumentation placed. Utilization of the training slots shall be mutually agreed upon between the VA and the Contractor. A training program that involves off-site travel shall include the cost of airfare, room, and board for each participant. Service Requirements- Equipment Preventative Maintenance/Repair Service. The Contractor shall be able to provide emergency equipment repair and preventative maintenance on all primary and back-up instrumentation and any incremental support equipment, e.g. water system, offered according to the following terms: A technical assistance center shall be available by telephone 24 hours per day, 7 days per week with a maximum call back response time of 1 hour. Equipment repair service shall be provided during core business hours. See Attachment A defining core business hours of each facility included in this solicitation. Certain circumstances may dictate the need for repair service to be conducted outside routine business hours. All such arrangements shall be coordinated between the Contractor and VA laboratory personnel. Equipment repair response time shall be no more than 24 hours. Preventative maintenance will be performed as frequently as published in manufacturer s operator s manual and within 2 weeks of the scheduled due date. A malfunction incident report shall be furnished to the Laboratory upon completion of each repair call. The report shall include, as a minimum, the following: date and time notified, date and time of arrival serial number, type and model number of equipment, time spent for repair, and proof of repair that includes documentation of a sample run of quality control verifying acceptable performance. Each notification for an emergency repair service call shall be treated as a separate and new service call. Upgrades - The Contractor shall provide upgrades to the equipment hardware, bidirectional interface and software in order to maintain the integrity of the system and the state-of the art technology, at no additional charge to the Government if sites are interested. These shall be provided as they become commercially available and at the same time as they are being provided to commercial customers. This requirement only applies to system upgrades that enhance the model of equipment being offered, i.e. new version of the software, correction of a hardware defect, upgrade offered to commercial customers at no additional charge, upgrade to replace the model of equipment no longer Contractor supported, etc. This does not refer to replacing the original piece of equipment provided under the BPA; however, it does refer to significant changes in the hardware operational capability. Ancillary support equipment - The Contractor shall provide, install and maintain through the life of the BPA, as indicated, any and all ancillary support equipment to fully operate the analyzer as defined in these specifications, e.g. universal interface equipment. In addition, the Contractor shall include all ancillary components that are customarily sold or provided with the model of equipment proposed, e.g. starter kits, etc. Characterization of waste- The Contractor shall provide documentation that it has characterized the hazardous nature of all wastes produced by all equipment, devices, reagents, and discharges in accordance with the requirements of the Code of Federal Regulations Title 40 Protection of the Environment Part 261 et seq. and applicable state and local requirements. Documentation shall include a description of the characteristics of the hazardous waste produced as a byproduct of the instrument operations, Safety Data Sheets (SDS) meeting the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the analytical process used to determine the hazardous nature and characteristics of the waste, and the analytical test results. Testing of hazardous waste is to be done in accordance with testing protocol specified for each individual waste as described in the Code of Federal Regulations Title 40 to make a determination if the waste is a hazardous waste or otherwise regulated. The determination and description shall address the following: Waste toxicity (Reference 40 CFR §261.11 and 40 CFR §261.24) Waste ignitability (Reference 40 CFR §261.21) Waste corrosivity (Reference 40 CFR §261.22) Waste reactivity (Reference 40 CFR §261.23) Hazardous waste from non-specific sources (F-listed) (Reference 40 CFR §261.31) Discarded commercial products (acutely toxic or P-listed and toxic or U-listed) (Reference 40 CFR §261.33) Solid Waste (Reference 40 CFR §261.2) Exclusions (Reference 40 CFR §261.4) The contractor will provide written instructions and training material to ensure VHA laboratory staff are trained as needed to properly operate devices with special emphasis on managing and disposing of hazardous waste in accordance with EPA and state requirements. Additionally, the training provided by the contractor must fulfill Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requirements for training as applicable to devices. Contractor shall provide a description of all wastes the process or equipment may discharge so that the facility can determine whether the discharge meets Local Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW), State and Federal discharge requirements. At a minimum the characteristics of ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity and toxicity as defined in 40 CFR §261 must be determined and documented. Any mercury containing reagents must be identified in any concentrations. All test results shall be provided. All listed chemicals (F, U, K and P) found in 40 CFR §261 shall be provided in product information and their concentrations documented. For those materials with positive hazardous waste determination, a mechanism for the laboratory to meet local discharge requirements (i.e. mercury, thimerosol and formaldehyde) must be developed and SDS sheets must be provided in advance for review. At a minimum, documentation shall include, but not be limited to the concentration/measures of the elements and parameters listed below and must be included with vendor response: Barium (Total) Cadmium (Total) Chromium (Total) Copper (Total) Cyanide (Total) Lead (Total) Mercury (Total) Nickel (Total) Silver (Total) Zinc (Total) Arsenic (Total) Selenium (Total) Tin (Total) pH Flash point (to higher than 200°F) BOD; biochemical oxygen demand The documentation the contractor provides will be used to work with the VAMC and the public and/or private organization (e.g., POTW) to determine whether the waste from each device can legally be disposed of via the sewerage system. Implementation/transition timeframe - The implementation of the services/requirements described in this solicitation shall be completed no later than 90 days after the award. This timeline is based on a reasonable attempt of the Contractor to complete all of the necessary implementation requirements within the stated timeframe. Contractor shall not be penalized for implementation timelines that extend beyond the 90-day timeframe, if the extension is through no fault of the Contractor and is a result of delays due to the Government. Upon award, the transition period for the awarded agreement to have all equipment and peripherals installed and operational shall be from the date of award through 90 days. During this same period all initial training of VA personnel in the operation and maintenance of said award shall also be completed. Contractor shall provide with its quotation an implementation plan for installation of new equipment. Contractor s submitted plan shall not exceed 90 days for the transition of all services under the awarded BPA including installation and training of personnel, transition of all testing materials, reagents and supplies, etc., performance of all correlations and validations. Failure of the Contractor to conform to the transition period shall be considered as sufficient cause to terminate BPA for cause under the Termination for Cause clause of the BPA. At the end of 90 days from award of the BPA, the awarded Contractor shall have full and sole responsibility for services under the awarded BPA. Standard and Quality of Performance- This paragraph establishes a standard of quality performance that shall be met before any equipment listed on the delivery order [or BPA] is accepted by the Government. This also includes replacement, substitute machines and machines that are added or field modified after a system has demonstrated successful performance. The acceptance period shall begin on the installation date. It shall end when the equipment has met the standard of performance for a period of 30 consecutive calendar days by operating in conformance with the Contractor s technical specification or as quoted in any BPA at an effectiveness level of 90% or more. In the event that equipment does not meet the standard of performance during the initial 30 consecutive calendar days, the standard of performance tests shall continue on a day-by-day basis until the standard of performance is met for a total of 30 consecutive days. Operational use time for performance testing for a system is defined as the accumulated time during which the machine is in actual use. System failure downtime is that period of time when any machine in the system is inoperable due to equipment failure. Downtime for each incident shall start from the time the Government makes a bona fide attempt to contact the Contractor s designated representative at the prearranged contact point until the system or machine(s) is returned to the Government in proper operating condition. During the performance period for a system, a minimum of 100 hours of operational use time with productive or simulated work shall be required as a basis for computation of the effectiveness level. However, in computing the effectiveness level, the actual number of operational use hours shall be used when in excess of the minimum of 100 hours. [reference: Master FSS] The Government will maintain daily records to satisfy the requirements of the Standard and Quality of Performance section and shall notify the Contractor in writing of the date of the first day of the successful period of operation. Operations use time and downtime shall be measured in hours and whole minutes. During the term of the BPA, should the repair record of any individual piece of laboratory equipment reflect a downtime of 10% or greater of the normal working days in one calendar month, a determination shall be made by the COR to replace the malfunctioning equipment with new equipment. The responsibility for maintaining the equipment furnished in good condition in accordance with manufacturer s instructions, shall be solely that of the Contractor. [reference: Master FSS]. Each instrument provided by the Contractor shall maintain an uptime of 90% in each month of the term of the agreement for equipment. Government s Responsibility- The user will perform routine maintenance and cleaning as required in the manufacturer s operation and maintenance instructions. The user shall maintain appropriate records to satisfy the requirements of this paragraph. Ownership of Equipment- Title to the equipment shall remain with the Contractor. All accessories (unused consumables, etc.) furnished by the Contractor shall accompany the equipment when returned to the Contractor. The Contractor, upon expiration of order(s), at termination and/or replacement of equipment, shall remove the equipment. The Contractor shall disconnect the analyzer (gas, water, air, etc.) and shall be responsible for all packing and shipping required to remove the analyzer. The Contractor will identify if removable media is required to perform their duties. The Clinical Engineering Department will ensure the removable media is scanned with anti-virus software running current virus definitions prior to connection to any medical device/system. Any Contractor with patient sensitive information that is imported into the removable media device for any reason must purge all patient sensitive information prior to departure from the facility. Prior to termination or completion of this BPA, Contractor/subcontractor must not destroy information received from VA, or gathered/created by the Contractor in the course of performing this BPA without prior written approval by the VA. Any data destruction done on behalf of VA by a Contractor/subcontractor must be done in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requirements as outlined in VA Directive 6300, Records and Information Management and its Handbook 6300.1 Records Management Procedures, applicable VA Records Control Schedules, and VA Handbook 6500.1, Electronic Media Sanitization. Self-certification by the Contractor that the data destruction requirements above have been met must be sent to the VA Contracting Officer within 30 days of termination or completion of the BPA. All electronic storage media used on non-VA leased or non-VA owned IT equipment that is used to store, process, or access VA information must be handled in adherence with VA Handbook 6500.1, Electronic Media Sanitization upon: (i) completion or termination of the BPA or (ii) disposal or return of the IT equipment by the Contractor/subcontractor or any person acting on behalf of the Contractor/subcontractor, whichever is earlier. Media (hard drives, optical disks, CDs, back-up tapes, etc.) used by the Contractors/subcontractors that contain VA information must be returned to the VA for sanitization or destruction or the Contractor/subcontractor must self-certify that the media has been disposed of per 6500.1 requirements. This must be completed within 30 days of termination or completion of the BPA or disposal or return of the IT equipment, whichever is earlier. Bio-Medical devices and other equipment or systems containing media (hard drives, optical disks, etc.) with VA sensitive information must not be returned to the Contractor at the end of lease, for trade-in, or other purposes. The options are: Contractor must accept the system without the drive VA s initial medical device procurement includes a spare drive which must be installed in place of the original drive at time of turn-in; or VA must reimburse the company for media at a reasonable open market replacement cost at time of purchase. Due to the highly specialized and sometimes proprietary hardware and software associated with medical equipment/systems, if it is not possible for the VA to retain the hard drive, then; The equipment Contractor must have an existing BAA if the device being traded in has protected health information stored on it and hard drive(s) from the system are being returned physically intact; and Any fixed hard drive on the device must be non-destructively sanitized to the greatest extent possible without negatively impacting system operation. Selective clearing down to patient data folder level is recommended using VA approved and validated overwriting technologies/methods/tools. Applicable media sanitization specifications need to be pre-approved and described in the purchase order or BPA. A statement needs to be signed by the Director (System Owner) that states that the drive could not be removed and that (a) and (b) controls above are in place and completed. The Information Security Officer (ISO) needs to maintain the documentation. Attachments