Department of Veterans Affairs Memorandum Special Notice This is not a request for proposal or a request for quote. There is no solicitation documentation available Under F.A.R Part 6.302-1. This is a notice of intent; The Houston Veterans Health Care System intends to negotiate a sole source firm fixed price contract with City of Houston located at 8000 N Stadium Dr. Houston, TX. 77054. which is the sole source provider of Laboratory testing for AFB smear and culture. The statutory authority for the sole source procurement is 41 U.S.C.253(b)(c). Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. Interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement no later than Aug. 15, 2019, @ 10:00 PM CST. Responses must be in writing and must provide clear and concise documentation, indicating an offerors ability to meet the required services. Responses will be emailed to
contact@example.gov. Emails are not to be in the excess of 5MB. Prospective offerors shall complete electronic annual representations and certification at http://orca.bpn.gov, shall be registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database at http://www.ccr.gov prior to award of a contract. Statement of Work AFB Smear & Culture Testing Referral Laboratory GENERAL: The Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC) is pursuing a contract with a base year with four one-year options and an emergency six-month extension at the end of the last option year for AFB Smear and Culture Testing with the Division of Disease Prevention & Control, Houston Health Department (as a sole source procurement). ORDERING, TRANSPORTATION, & DELIVERY OF SERVICES: MEDVAMC is requesting referral laboratory testing for AFB Smear and Culture. AFB culture and smears are picked up twice per day (morning and afternoon) on Monday through Thursday and once per day on Friday (afternoon). The Microbiology laboratory personnel have access to the Houston Health Department s (HHD) website. The requisition forms are completed online via the website. Two copies of the form are printed; one is placed in the biohazard specimen transport bag with the specimen that is being submitted and the other is maintained in the department for record keeping purposes. The HHD courier will pick up the sample from Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service (P&LMS) Microbiology Laboratory, Room 3A-122 of the MEDVAMC at 2002 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030. The referral lab does not provide collection or shipping containers as the original collection container submitted to the lab will be utilized. Results will be faxed to the Microbiology Laboratory on a secure fax line (
+1 (555) 000-0000) located in room 3A-130. HHD will report all smears on the same day, if the specimen is picked up between 07:30 am and 08:30 am. Otherwise, the smear result will be faxed within 24 hours of receipt, except for those samples received on Friday afternoons, over the weekend and on holidays. Those results will be submitted on the following Monday or next business day following the holiday. All positive smears and cultures will also be called to the Microbiology Laboratory at the main phone number (
+1 (555) 000-0000). Negative preliminary culture results will be faxed at 3 weeks. The negative final culture results will be delivered at 6 weeks and the final positive culture results will be delivered at the completion of culture workup to MEDVAMC s Microbiology Laboratory. This will be provided every day that the HHD will be open. PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS: MEDVAMC is requesting referral laboratory testing for AFB Smear and Culture. The diagnostic gold standard for active tuberculosis (TB) is the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) by culture. However, despite its limited sensitivity, sputum smear microscopy is still the mainstay of TB diagnosis. The sensitivity of the concentrated smear is 83% and the specificity is 98%, whereas the culture sensitivity and specificity are 100% when compared to Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) the other gold standard. A negative AFB smear may mean that no infection is present, that symptoms are caused by something other than mycobacteria, or that the mycobacteria were not present in sufficient quantity to be seen under the microscope. Positive AFB smears indicate a probable mycobacterial infection. Patients suspected of TB infection must be placed in TB isolation (a negative pressure room). Current guidelines recommend that patients suspected of having active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in a health care facility should be placed in a TB isolation room. These recommendations state that isolation can be discontinued when the diagnosis of TB is ruled out or when a determination has been made that the patient is noninfectious. Susceptibility will be performed on Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and M. kansasii automatically if isolated, and some of the non-tuberculosis strains such as Mycobacterium fortuitum group, M. chelonae, M. abscessus, M. avium complex, etc that also cause lung disease will have susceptibilities performed upon request. The contractor shall provide and ensure safe, secure, and careful handling of the patient samples and the reporting of results in accordance with established guidelines from the Department of Veterans Affairs Handbook 6500, the College of American Pathologists (CAP), The Joint Commission (JCAHO), guidelines established by VA Laboratory Service or as required to follow the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) during transportation. GOVERNMENT S RESPONSIBILITY: The Microbiology Laboratory personnel at MEDVAMC will affix a label containing the patient s full name and full social security number to the specimen s container in order to ensure integrity of the information, place the specimen in the biohazard specimen transport bag, and place the sample in the pick-up area for the HHD courier to retrieve.
