R--CathPCI Registry Subscription

CathPCI Registry Program, American College of Cardiology, Membership Subscription The Puget Sound Healthcare System intends to establish a sole source contract with the American College of Cardiology Foundation for a membership subscription to the CathPCI Registery. The contract will be a fixed price contract and will be for a base and 4 option periods. Each period will be for 1 calendar year. The proposed action will be solicited and negotiated with only one source under the authority of FAR 6.302-1. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals; however, all written responses received by 11:00 pm Pacific Time on 12/10/2008 will be considered by the Government. Interested persons may identify their interest and capability. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. A determination by the Government not to open the requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. SCOPE: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has an ongoing requirement to monitor the quality of the cardiac care that it provides to veteran patients and to compare the results of this care to the care provided to patients that are treated outside of VA. BACKGROUND: In 2003, the results of a two-year study conducted by Price, Waterhouse, Coopers and Harvard University indicated that the cardiac care provided to veterans by VA was not up to the standards provided to patients that were treated outside VA. VA established a Blue Ribbon Commission on Cardiac Care that reviewed this study and set forth a number of recommendations that VA has incorporated in the effort to improve cardiac care to veterans. The American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF) has developed the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR). The NCDR is the only recognized national registry/database that collects and reports on standardized national clinical cardiovascular data. Use of the NCDR permits confidential comparisons of a participant's data with national or regional summary data in order to monitor cardiac care performance in an effort to improve patient care. To ensure consistency of data collection, comparison, and analysis, VA intends to collect and submit cardiovascular data to the NCDR in an effort to monitor and improve the cardiac care it provides to veterans. The VA plans to begin by participating in the NCDR's CathPCI Registry which captures data on patients who have diagnostic cardiac catheterization and percutaneous coronary intervention. The VA may in the future consider participation in the ICD Registry capturing data on implantable cardiac defibrillators, the CARE Registry collecting data on carotid stenting and carotid endarterectomy procedures, and the ACTION-GWTG Registry collecting data on acute coronary syndrome patients. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS: Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has over 75 facilities that have cardiac catheterization capabilities, including 54 that perform percutaneous coronary intervention procedures. VHA has developed a VISTA compatible program, the Cardiovascular Assessment, Reporting and Tracking System (CART), which allows facilitation of the reporting of cath laboratory procedures. This program consists of three modules; pre-cath assessment, diagnostic cath report, and interventional procedure report. Additional modules are in development and will be added at later dates. The CART data reside on servers at the Denver VA which is the clinical and technical coordinating center for CART. Administrative functions are located at VA Puget Sound Health Care System and are managed by the Ischemic Heart Disease QuERI located with in the HSR&D NW Center of Excellence. The CART application collects data and stores that data in the CART database located on VA servers at Denver. CART will transmit, in aggregate, data to the ACCF/NCDR. Data for all VA cath labs will be transmitted to NCDR with facilities de-identified (a confidential site id will be used). Data transmissions will be composed of multiple batches, and each batch will contain data from a single VA facility. All data quality reports and site level reports from NCDR will be sent back to Denver VA. NCDR will provide CART center at Denver VA with VA to VA benchmarks as well as VA to NCDR benchmarks. Denver VA will maintain a crosswalk to the confidential site ids to enable them to distribute facility-level reports that come back from NCDR. SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS: VA will submit a data record on all veteran patients who receive medical care in a Cath Lab or similar facility and who are eligible for inclusion in the CathPCI Registry This data will be submitted on a quarterly basis and in accordance with the data elements, definitions, and transmission format required by the NCDR (www.accncdr.com). VA will submit its data within 90 days of the completion of each calendar quarter. The ACCF will accept and analyze that data which meets the process and standards established by the NCDR and will generate Data Quality Reports within 30 days of each data submission. NCDR software upgrades / technical refreshers will be included without additional charges.