Notice of Intent to Sole Source: 36C77621P0098 Sanford Guide Web Edition Subscription Introduction: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Program Contracting Activity Central (PCAC) intends to issue a sole source contract to Antimicrobial Therapy, Inc. for the Sanford Guide Web Edition Subscription. Justification: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) requires an existing, commercial, off-the-shelf, web-based, electronic subscription to the full-text publications of the Sanford Guide shown in Scope of Work below, which will be made available throughout the VHA healthcare system. At this time, there is no solicitation. If your company feels it can provide the required Sanford Guide Subscription, please review the requirements below and provide a capability statement. Statement of Work Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration HDI21-72 Sanford Guide Web Edition Subscription March 2021 A. General Information 1.0 Introduction: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) requires access to the Sanford Guide WEB EDITION via the internet. The VHA Infectious Diseases Program Office has identified this resource as the authoritative, up-to-date, and relevant resource to ensure infection control information is made available to staff for patient care. 2.0 Background: With bioterrorism, avian flu, COVID-19, and drug-resistant infections in the news, doctors need a guide to antimicrobial therapy more than ever. The Sanford Guide is one of the most frequently used and widely relied upon references in medicine. New material found in this web edition includes updated recommendations for management of community-associated MRSA, treatment options for highly resistant bacteria, and current regimens for antiretroviral therapy. All the tables have been updated to reflect newly approved drugs, new indications for existing drugs and updated dosage, side effects and pharmacologic data. Considering the ongoing challenge to quickly formulate and implement effective, comprehensive treatment plans for patients with infections, providers in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) need a variety of readily available resources. The VHA continues to work to enhance its ability to fight the war on infections and be a leader in health care in providing resources to its providers to do so. One resource that is needed is the internationally recognized Sanford Guide. The Sanford Guide has provided up-to-date guidelines and recommendations for the treatment of infectious diseases for more than 50 years. It is the recognized gold standard reference in its field providing convenient, comprehensive recommendations for treatment and prevention of bacterial, fungal, viral, parasitic and mycobacterial infections, surgical prophylaxis, and ancillary information covering pharmacology, adverse effects, drug-drug interactions and dose adjustments. The Sanford Guide Online is proposed for use in the VHA so that it can be readily available to providers at the point of care from any computer. The online guide extends the scope of coverage over the text guide version to bring new functionality to the material such as links to PubMed abstracts and other resources in a highly searchable environment. 3.0 Scope of Work: The contractor shall provide the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration internet access to the Sanford Guide WEB EDITION via a site license. The contractor shall assure the requirements in paragraphs 5 8 below are met. 4.0 Performance Period: One (1) year from date of award, plus four (4), one (1) year options, to be exercised at the discretion of the Government. Base Year: 9/26/2021-9/25/2022. Option Year 1 of 4: 9/26/2022-9/25/2023. Option Year 2 of 4: 9/26/2023-9/25/2024. Option Year 3 of 4: 9/26/2024-9/25/2025. Option Year 4 of 4: 9/26/2025-9/25/2026. 5.0 Information Quality Information shall be accurate, authoritative, and relevant. Authors and sources shall be well recognized subject experts in their fields. Topics shall be presented succinctly, but with adequate detail to be useful to clinicians. Best practice or evidence-based information shall be included in recommendations for diagnosis or therapy. Policies for determining validity and standards for inclusion of material shall be well described. Guidelines and summaries shall include references or sources. When necessary to the topic, images, tables and diagrams shall be available and clearly shown. 6.0 Usability Navigation within the system shall be logical and easy to use. There shall be fast access to topics and subtopics. Topic linking or indexing shall retrieve material of high relevance quickly. The product shall have user friendly help and direction aids. 7.0 Currency The date a topic was last reviewed for content shall be stated and easily found. 8.0 Access, Content, Support Product shall be 508 compliant (http://www.section508.gov/). If product is not 508 compliant, vendor shall describe measures being taken to bring product into compliance and date, within 12 months of contract award, that product will be 508 compliant; OR, if product is not 508 compliant, vendor shall describe why no work is being done to make it 508 compliant. An unrestricted number of simultaneous users shall have immediate access from any computer throughout VHA that has internet access. All authorized remote users with VPN shall have access to the product. A username and/or password option shall be offered for remote users if needed. The product shall be compatible with Internet Explorer and most standard web browsers, which have cookies enabled. To ensure privacy, the product shall use session cookies rather than persistent cookies. The product shall be compatible with the Windows environment. The contractor shall provide all site content and technical support of the web site to VA users nationwide. System downtime shall be minimal and VA project manager shall be notified when such downtime occurs. Topics shall be easily printed. The contractor shall permit free use for educational purposes of all pictures and graphics. The contractor shall assign a single point of contact for customer service issues. The contractor shall respond to questions on the same business day. The contractor shall make enterprise and IP level usage statistics available to the system administrator. The product shall be accessible via a variety of personal mobile devices including Blackberry, Apple and Android devices. Graphics, pictures, and/or images shall be searchable. The contractor shall offer training sessions (web-based or live) for VHA staff on an as requested basis. Specialized training sessions shall be provided for VA library staff if requested. The contractor shall permit topics to be emailed among VHA colleagues.
