Implementation Specialist

Synopsis: Network Contracting Office (NCO) 2 of the Department of Veterans Affairs intends to award a sole source contract to Barbara Morano located at 200 W 86TH ST APT 14G, New York, New York, 10024-3372, under the authority of 41 U.S.C 253 (c) (1) - FAR 6.302-1 Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements. The proposed procurement is an Implementation Specialist. Barbara Morano has the unique set of qualifications that enable her to combine both a clinical and management approach to implementation of geriatric models of care for both rural and urban Veterans. Barbara Morano, through an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) Assignment Agreement, has over 5 years of experience in consulting on the GRECC Connect Project where she collaborated with 15 VHA sites to provide geriatric services to rural Veterans. She also has consulted for the past 3 years on the Patient Safety Center of Inquiry where she mentored 12 VHA sites as they implemented a deprescribing intervention. Her prior experience on these 2 funded programs supporting this contract is the major contributing factor to limit this contract to only one source. Ms. Morano has the ability to begin consulting with no delay, as would not be the case with a contractor who would need time to be hired, brought on-board and to orient to both projects causing the potential for not meeting the funder's deliverables timeline. This could jeopardize future funding. Using a contractor also is a cost-savings to the VA as it eliminates costs of hiring and onboarding, as well as salary and benefit package. Scope of Work: GRECC Connect aims to improve access to interdisciplinary geriatric care through providing geriatric consultative care to rural clinics using telemedicine modalities and educational support to rural teams to enhance rural teams ability to deliver care to older adults and family caregivers. Rural Veterans are, on average, older and sicker than their urban counterparts. Veterans aged 65 and above represent 48% of all enrolled rural Veterans. Older adults often have complex chronic conditions that require care that spans multiple disciplines. Interdisciplinary geriatric teams have the expertise to improve care for these Veterans with complex needs but Veterans in rural areas often lack access to specialized geriatric care and may find it prohibitive to travel to secondary or tertiary VA facilities where geriatric care is available. Rural providers and teams often indicate that they need support and further education for the management of older adults with complex needs, including management of complex geriatric syndromes such as dementia. GRECC Connect will continue to build on current infrastructure for providing geriatric consultation in order to improve access to geriatric interdisciplinary consultative care for older rural Veterans and family caregivers that currently lack access and provide clinical support to rural providers for care of older rural Veterans across VHA, disseminating this model of delivering consultative telehealth service to rural Veterans and educational support to rural provider teams. For FY22, GRECC Connect will continue to focus on enhancing access to geriatric consultation, expanding from 13 to 14 of 18 VISNs, increasing uptake of telehealth geriatric consultation service in rural CBOCs, disseminating expertise in use of VA Video Connect by older adults with complex needs through the GRECCs and to geriatric teams in medical centers without GRECCs (GeriPACTs). The North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) is 611310 (Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools) and the standard size is $30 million. The Product Service Code (PSC) is AN11 (Health R&D Services - Health care services, Basic Research). No solicitation package will be issued. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotes; however, interested parties may identify their interest by providing a capability statement not later than December 21, 2021 at 5:00pm EST. The capability statement must provide clear and unambiguous evidence to substantiate the capability of the party to provide the required services. A determination by the Government not to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement in the future.