Inactive Total Small Business Set-Aside (FAR 19.5)

The Contractor shall furnish all personnel to provide services necessary to perform on-site Radiation Oncology Board Certified Chief Therapeutic Medical Physicist, Board Certified Medical Physicist, B... The Contractor shall furnish all personnel to provide services necessary to perform on-site Radiation Oncology Board Certified Chief Therapeutic Medical Physicist, Board Certified Medical Physicist, Board Certified Medical Dosimetrists and/or Radiologic Therapy Technologists to eligible beneficiaries of the Department of Veterans Affairs, New York Harbor Healthcare System. All VHA Radiation Oncology Services are accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting body contracted through the National Radiation Oncology Program (NROP). As such, any Contractor providing on-site radiation oncology services must adhere to all the policies and procedures, practice standards, guidelines, patient care operations; patient safety, quality assurance and quality management of radiotherapy planning, equipment, and delivery; and continuous quality improvement initiatives promulgated by the American College of Radiology, American Society for Radiation Oncology and American Association for Physicist in Medicine. Three awards will be made as a result of this this solicitation (one award for the Chief Therapeutic Medical Physicist and Medical Physicist, one award for the Board Certified Medical Dosimetrists and one award for the Radiologic Therapy Technologists/on-call).

Inactive

THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION. This is a Sources Sought Notice only. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. This notice is issued sol... THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION. This is a Sources Sought Notice only. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. This notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a guarantee that the VA will issue an RFP in the future. This notice does not commit the Government to contract for any service. All information submitted in response to this announcement is voluntary. The Government will not pay for information requested nor will it compensate any respondent for any cost incurred in developing information provided to the Government. Not responding to this notice does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if issued. This announcement is based on the best information available at this time and is subject to future amendment and/or changes. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response. Responses to this Sources Sought must be in writing using the attached questionnaire. Responses that do not use the attached questionnaire will not be considered responsive. No marketing materials are allowed as part of this sources sought notice. The Government will not review any other information or attachments included in your submission that fall under this category. The purpose of this Sources Sought Notice is for market research to make appropriate acquisition decisions and to gain knowledge of potential qualified businesses. The anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 621399 Offices of Other Misc. Health Practitioners. NOTE: Please ensure that your System for Award Management (SAM) registration indicates this NAICS code if you are interested in the requirement. Please read the draft performance of work below to garner a full understanding of the specialties and services required before responding: DRAFT Performance Work Statement (PWS) The VA New York Harbor Healthcare System, Brooklyn Campus VA Radiation Oncology services are accredited by American College of Radiology (ACR) and follow the standards and guidelines set forth by ACR. As such, any contractor providing on-site radiation oncology services must adhere to all the American College of Radiology Guidelines & Technical Standards for Radiation Oncology. A contractor providing on-site radiation oncology services must provide evidence the radiation oncology practice meets or exceeds the American College of Radiology Guidelines for Radiation Oncology: http://www.acr.org/Quality-Safety/Standards-Guidelines/Practice-Guidelines-by-Modality/Radiation-Oncology http://www.acr.org/Quality-Safety/Standards-Guidelines/Technical-Standards-by-Modality/Medical-Physics The contractor shall provide a team of fully trained and experienced professional and technical personnel to operate the Radiation Oncology department. Personnel to be provided include, senior physicists, dosimetrists and radiation therapists who will work in conjunction with VA staff to provide a full range of state of the art radiation oncology services to Veteran patients. PLACE OF PERFORMANCE: VA New York Harbor Healthcare System, Brooklyn Campus, 800 Poly Place, Brooklyn, NY 11209. POSITIONS: The contractor shall provide staff with qualifications outlined below necessary to perform the clinical and technical services: 1.5 FTE Senior Therapeutic Medical Physicists: 8:00 a.m. - 4:30p.m.; Monday through Friday (0.5 FTE works the same hours Monday, Wednesday, Thursday); additional hours outside of the regular tour of duty will be required to perform QA 1.0 FTE on-call every evening, weekend and Federal Holiday; must have the ability to respond to calls immediately and report to the VAMC within 2 hours 2.5 FTE Certified Medical Dosimetrists: 8:00 a.m. - 4:30p.m.; Monday through Friday (0.5 FTE works the same hours Monday, Wednesday, Thursday); additional hours outside of the regular tour of duty will be required to perform QA 7.0 FTE Therapeutic Radiation Therapists: 8:00 a.m. - 4:30p.m.; Monday through Friday; additional hours outside of the regular tour of duty will be required to perform QA 3.0 FTE on-call every evening, weekend and Federal Holiday; must have the ability to respond to calls immediately and report to the VAMC within 2 hours Note: The definition of an FTE, or full-time equivalent, is a full-time contract individual working 40 hours per week or 2000 hours per year excluding Federal holidays. QUALIFICATIONS Senior Therapeutic Medical Physicists (TMP) (PhD Level) Must be Board Certified in Medical Physics or Therapeutic Medical Physics by the ABR and maintain licensure with the Board of Licensure for Professional Medical Physicists, if applicable. Certification must be maintained throughout the contract. In the event that Contractor s medical physicist(s) is/are not directly employed by the treating facility, documentation must be provided to ensure adequate certification. Ten years of experience as a medical physicist for a Radiation Oncology service, department or program Must have at least 10 years of documented post-board experience after board certification and at least three years of continuous work experience within the last five years to ensure the TMP s experience is current and relevant. Senior TMP must also have the following minimum years of experience, expertise, and knowledge on the following procedures, equipment and software: Five years of experience Documentation detailing experience in performing QA procedures. Five years of experience Documentation detailing Therapeutic Medical Physics in a healthcare system that is ACR certified. Five years of experience Varian Linear Accelerators: IX and Trilogy with Brain Lab Accessories following standards of TG-142 Five years of experience Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) including Cone Beam CT (following standards of TG-142). Five year of experience Eclipse treatment planning system; and ARIA record & verify system, including the following treatment modalities: 2D/3D Conformal, SRS, SRT, SBRT, and IMRT/VMAT (following standards of TG-53) Five years of experience IMRT QA: MapCheck I/II (or equivalent. Five years of experience Toshiba CT Simulator (or equivalent) and following standards of TG-66 Five years of experience Using Superficial X-ray Machine. Successfully perform one acceptance testing (i.e., work with vendor to ensure proper working condition during installation) on a linear accelerator. Successfully perform one commission of (i.e., gathered necessary measurements or data) a linear accelerator for a treatment planning system. Thorough knowledge and experience with high and low does rate brachytherapy; including high does rate prostate brachytherapy Certified Medical Dosimetrists (CMD) Must be certified by the Medical Dosimetrist Certification Board. In the event that the Contractor s Dosimetrist(s) is/are not directly employed by the treating facility, documentation must be provided to ensure adequate certification. Must be certified in medical dosimetry by the Medical Dosimetrist Certification Board (MDCB) with at least five years of continuous work experience within the last three years to ensure the CMD s experience is current and relevant. CMD must also have the following minimum years of experience, expertise and knowledge on the following procedures, equipment and software: Three years of experience Documentation detailing experience in performing QA procedures Three years of experience Documentation detailing CMD experience in a healthcare system that is ACR certified. Three years of experience Varian Linear Accelerators: Novalis TX with Brain Lab and ExacTrac, TrueBeam with Rapid Arc (or equivalent). Three years of experience Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) including Cone Beam CT (following standards of TG-142). Three years of experience Eclipse treatment planning system 11.4; and ARIA record & verify system, including the following treatment modalities: SRS, SRT, SBRT, and IMRT (following standards of TG-53) Three years of experience MapCheck and ArcCheck (or equivalent) Three years of experience GE and Phillips CT Simulator (or equivalent) Thorough knowledge of treatment planning systems and routine machine calibration Therapeutic Radiation Therapists Current New York State licensure Must be a graduate of an approved program in Therapeutic Radiologic Technology, evidenced by a certificate or an Associate degree from an accredited institution by the JRCERT and certification by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT). Minimum five years of experience in Radiation Oncology At least one year of experience Knowledge of overall characteristics and clinical relevance of radiation oncology treatment machines and equipment. At least one year of experience Delivery of prescribed therapeutic radiation for the purposes of cancer and abnormal cell growth treatments. At least one year of experience In 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT), Intensity-Modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). At least one year of experience Education and expertise necessary to generate radiation dose distribution and dose calculations in collaboration with the medial physicist and radiation oncologist. VA RADIATION ONCOLOGY EQUIPMENT: True Beam Varian STX Stereotactic Radiosurgery Linear Accelerator BK Medical Ultrasound/Fiducial Machine Siemens Oncore (160-MLC) with IMRT and Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) Phillips Big Bore CAT scan with Lap Laser. Nucletron MHDR-V2, high dose rate unit with GYN, Nasopharynx and rectal applicator. Varian Halcyon Linear accelerator. SOFTWARE: Aria Access - data management software Aria - treatment planning software. Nucletron PLATO - treatment planning software Aria/Eclipse treatment planning software RESPONSIBILITIES Reporting any adverse patient safety incidents within 24 hours to the Chief of the Service, Chief Therapist/Administrative Officer, and the Chief of Staff. Observing patient rights and principles of customer service in all patient care activities. Displaying the highest level of courtesy and respect and attention to customer satisfaction at all times. No instances of discourtesy or unprofessional behavior in the delivery of the required services will be accepted. All contractors who have access to sensitive information are responsible for: Accessing the minimum necessary data for which they have authorized privileges and on a need-to-know basis in the performance of their contract VA duties. Protecting an individual s right to privacy and ensuring proper use and disclosure of information. Appropriately safeguarding printed and electronic individually identifiable information at all times, including when work areas are unattended. Complying with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule (45 C.F.R. Parts 160 and 164) and the Privacy Act (PA) (5 U.S.C. 552a). Reporting complaints and/or violations of privacy policies or procedures to the COR in a timely manner. Treatments to be administered include but are not limited to the following: External-Beam Radiation Therapy: 4-gated therapy, conformal 3D therapy (3D CRT), electron beam irradiation, IMRT (intensity-modulated radiation therapy), IGRT (image-guided radiation therapy), LINAC external beam therapy, stereotactic radio-surgery, stereotactic radio-therapy and whole body electron beam therapy Internal Radiation Therapy: HDR (high-dose rate) and low-dose rate internal radiation therapy including general, breast, cervical and prostate brachytherapy The contractor shall provide representation at the following committees and agree to active participation as called upon: Tumor Boards, general, pulmonary and thoracic Clinical Service Chiefs Clinical Executive Board Cancer Committee Radiation Safety Committee The contractor must perform daily operations for the Radiation Oncology unit as they pertain to radiation therapy instrumentation and computer programs and provide assistance and advice to VA program personnel for developing new techniques in patient-related radiation therapy programs. Calibration Analysis and Quality Assurance Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly Quality Assurance The contract staff will coordinate and complete the TLD measurements. The contract staff will complete and submit the annual measurement result to a third-party calibration analysis, the analysis will confirm that monthly and annual calibrations are accurate and delivering the radiation beam as prescribed. The contractor should have and is responsible for all of the equipment to produce the yearly QA on all machines (water phantom). In event of replacing any linear accelerator, the contractor is responsible for the commissioning of new machine. WORKLOAD DATA The workload for the Radiation Oncology Service is as follows: FY16 8,053 encounters, 713 unique FY17 5,770 encounters, 663 unique FY18 5,725 encounters, 590 unique FY19 4,899 encounters, 617 unique Note: The workload figures shown above include patients seen on consult only as well as patients receiving partial or full courses of treatment. The number of brachytherapy seed implants are as shown: Calendar Year Number of Patient Procedures 2019 12 2018 13 2017 16 Note: Brachytherapy procedures are done in the Operating Room with two physicians, one Physicist and one Oncology Nurse; four hours are required for each procedure.