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SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE Pill Packager System in Tulsa, OK, install September 2025 NOTICE ID: PKG080_CHIP-IN NOTICE DESCRIPTION: Pill Packager System Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Eastern Oklahoma ... SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE Pill Packager System in Tulsa, OK, install September 2025 NOTICE ID: PKG080_CHIP-IN NOTICE DESCRIPTION: Pill Packager System Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Eastern Oklahoma VA Healthcare System (EOVAHCS) This is a Sources Sought Notice only; a request for information (RFI). This is a request for vendor expressions of interest for market research purposes, in accordance with FAR Part 10 and FAR part 15.201. This is not a request for quote, and this is not a solicitation. There is no guarantee this will eventuate to solicitation or a contract. This notice is posted by the Acquisition Utilization Specialist (AUS) at EOVAHCS. The Acquisition Utilization Specialist is not the Contract Specialist and does not represent the Contracting Office. This is not posted by the VA Contracting Office, and we are not warranted Contracting Officers and we have no authority to enter an agreement or contract. Vendor emails must include subject line as "Pill Packager System “, as a minimum. Be sure to include your vendor’s name and UEI number in the body of the email. Eastern Oklahoma VA Healthcare System is seeking vendors who have an interest and capability to provide Installation of Pill Packager System to the Locations identified in this notice. This notice is not to be construed as a commitment on the part of the Government to award a contract, nor does the Government intend to pay for any information submitted because of this request. The Government does not reimburse respondents for any costs associated with submission of the information being requested or reimburse expenses incurred for responses to this RFI. The information provided may be used by VA in developing its acquisition strategy and Performance Work Statement (PWS). Any information submitted by respondents to this RFI is strictly voluntary; however, any information received shall become the property of the Government and will not be returned to the respondent. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted, or competition sensitive information contained in their response. Product information, brochures, part numbers, and/or other description information may be included with the submission. VA is under no obligation to provide feedback to the RFI respondent, or to contact the RFI respondent for clarification of any information submitted as part of the response. REQUIREMENT: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), new Tulsa VA Medical Center (VAMC) has a brand name or equivalent requirement for the pill packager system (automated unit dose repacking machine). BACKGROUND: A building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is currently being renovated for the purpose of being used as the new Tulsa VA Medical Center (VAMC) in September 2025. The building is currently under control of VHiT LLC and their construction company, responsible for remodeling the facility. All EOVAHCS contractor must coordinate with the EOVAHCS COR to gain access to the Location identified in the SOW. If the contractor arrives at the Location, or has product delivered to the Location, without obtaining prior approval from the COR, this will be at no additional cost to the government. Accessing the Location without COR approval could result in unnecessary expenses borne by the contractor, such as shipments, travel, staffing, and product storage, for which the government takes no responsibility. Access to the building must be coordinated between the VA’s awarded contractor and the COR, and access will be subject to change based on the coordination with VHiT LLC and their construction company. Limited access to the facility will be permitted to the VA and EOVAHCS contractor, until after the renovated building is gifted to the VA. SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS Contractor is required to provide the following products, brand name or equal, including installation at the location. All equipment specified must be the same size or smaller to fit within the designed constructed space while maintaining an equivalent throughput capacity. Equipment: Description: Pill Packager – ATP2 or equivalent Must have the capacity to start with the size of 320 canisters based on pharmacies current formulary Must allow the capability to “pre-fill” or stage two trays at a time, providing continuous dispensing of non-canister medications The packaging system should have software features allowing users to use a different NDC if the primary NDC for an order has ran out of inventory; to pause a batch during a production run to work on another batch allowing users to come back to the paused batch and pick up where it left off; group or daisy chain canisters together to reduce refill rates for high volume or large pill; skip a med if un available then removing it from the order staging it as separate order when inventory is available; and allow users to separate an order with multiple patients into separate orders at the packager level Must have swappable lower packaging unit for onsite redundancy to eliminate downtime Must have Graphic Printing capabilities (barcode printability being most important, but also ability to print in color, vertical, pictures, icons, logos, etc.) Packaging system must have a clamp and seal system to efficiently seal pre-folded paper with a serrated edge to ensure pouches are produced with less errors and make it easy to access medications Must have the ability to change pouch sizes to fit different sized medications, most importantly specialized narrow unit dose packaging with additional purchase of a wide lower packaging unit will be useful as our facility transitions to include CLC beds in a few years. Must have reporting capabilities with the ability to check user metrics and run audit reports (reporting must include ability to show who accessed the machine and performed what functions, and what has been verified by the pharmacist) Must have Self-calibration canister kit for canisters (ability to modify canisters to fit different shape and size medications without replacing canister) Set of universal, manually adjustable canisters allowing the pharmacy staff to calibrate canisters for new NDC’s without the need to swap out canister parts Must have the capability to utilize smart canister technology allowing the pharmacy to achieve optimal workflow. Smart canisters utilize microchips and are upgraded based on pharmacy desire on a per drawer basis. Description: Narrow Lower Packaging Unit – ATP2 Narrow Lower Packaging Unit or equivalent Swappable lower packaging units are an excellent redundancy option. The lower packaging units are easily accessible and can be removed from the machine if needed. If a lower packaging unit becomes inoperable, a backup lower packaging unit can be available to swap out with only a few minutes of downtime. Description: Replenishment Kit with Scanner Must allow users to re-calibrate canisters onsite. Within a few minutes a user can readjust a canister if needed for different NDC’s allowing production to stay automated and reducing downtime due to increased tray use. Recalibrating canisters on site eliminates any potential loss of production due to waiting for a new canister. It also provides technicians the ability to reevaluate or audit a canisters calibration if pill dispensing is inaccurate. The kit must provide a series of charts / graphs along with a set of calipers used to indicate what size canister parts to be used when rebuilding a canister for a specific NDC. There are a variety of parts within the canisters and calibrating the canisters correctly to a pill size helps ensure the pill drops correctly and ensures no extra pills are dropping into a bag. The kit must include a canister auditing device which will allow a technician to perform a practice dispense of the medication with a volume of medication coming from the canister to ensure its dispensing accurately and smoothly. This is an important device included in the package used to QC canisters in the pharmacy. Must be compatible with the canisters within our current device. The pharmacy could use those canisters in a new packager in the future and / or use them as a parts resource. This provides a monetary savings by reducing the number of new canisters needing to be purchased. INSTALLATION AND TRAINING: Installation, staff training, and manuals, are required as part of this procurement. Delivery and installation must be coordinated with the local COR. PRODUCT DELIVERY and PERFORMANCE PERIOD: Delivery and installation is required at the new Tulsa VAMC in September 2025. Facility staff will need to be trained on product use between October and December 2025. First patient is anticipated to be scheduled January 2026. LOCATION: The new Tulsa VA Medical Center will be located at 440 S. Houston Ave, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74127. The Contractor shall furnish all contract oversight, management, Technically Trained Personnel, OEM authorizations to support provision and installation of OEM products, applicable licenses, uniforms, equipment, tools, materials, supplies, storage, insurances, shipping and delivery costs, and transportations necessary to provide the products, and associated installation, for EOVAHCS in accordance with this SOW. Any services associated with this product are considered non-personal services. The Contractor, its employees, agents, and subcontractors shall not be considered VA employees for any purpose of fulfilling the SOW and shall be considered employees of the Contractor. QUALIFIED VENDOR: The Vendor shall be a qualified company to perform such services with capability to provide all personnel, supervision, equipment and other services deemed necessary to perform all work as defined in the description of services herein. A qualified vendor is one who has provided same or equal products and performed services in the immediate past 3 years that are similar in size, scope and complexity to those outlined in this notice. A qualified vendor will also have no obstacles with delivery timeframes. A qualified vendor will also have non-IT products that have no obstacles or issues with regards to complying with the Buy American Act and/or Trade Agreements Act. RFI Submission Instructions: VA requests a clear, concise, and complete response to this RFI. Page Limit: FIVE pages. The Government will not review any other information or attachments included, that are more than the 5-page limit. The Government will not review generic marketing materials that do not address the information contained herein or the attached documents. Responses and questions must be addressed by emailing monica.christopher@va.gov. Vendors must reference the Sources Sought Notice ID and Notice Description in all communication and on the subject line of the response: “Pill Packager System PKG080_CHIP-IN”. Communication or responses that do not address the Notice ID and Notice Description in the subject line may be lost in email traffic. In your reply, please address the following questions and provide answers and responses as part of your 5-page RFI submission. QUESTIONNAIRE Company Name and POC Details (representatives name, title, phone, email, address). Company UEI number. It is anticipated that NAICS code 339112 SURGICAL AND MEDICAL INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURING will apply to this procurement. To determine a business as small, the SBA has capped the size standard for this NAICS code at 1,000 employees. What size is your company as it relates to the SBA size standard for NAICS 339112? Socioeconomic data: If a small business, what type of small business are you? Is your firm a small business under NAICS 339112? YES ______ NO ______ Is your firm a Veteran-Owned Small Business? YES ______ NO ______ Is your firm a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business? YES ______ NO ______ Is your firm a 8(a) small business? YES ______ NO ______ Is you firm a certified HUB Zone firm? YES ______ NO ______ Is your firm a Woman Owned business? YES ______ NO ______ Is your firm a Large Business? YES ______ NO ______ List your Company Qualifications. Explain briefly your company’s capability to provide the entire range of requirements. Specifically, please provide a brief summary of your technical approach to meet the requirements specified in this notice. Does your company sell / distribute / install the products listed in this notice? Circle all the apply to your company: sell / distribute / install. If you are an authorized distributer and/or authorized installer, please provide signed documentation (e.g. letter from OEM’s legal department) demonstrating that you are authorized by the manufacturer to distribute and/or install their product. Who would be providing the products? (circle all that apply) Our firm would be the Primary Contractor providing products. Our Subcontractor would be providing products. Who would be installing the products? (circle all that apply) Our firm would be the Primary Contractor installing products. Our Subcontractor would be installing products. List your company’s Recent Experience of Similar Size, Scope and Complexity to what is described in the notice. This can be US Federal contracted experience or experience providing products and performing services in the commercial sector. If listing your subcontractor’s experience, be sure to state this. State if your company is able to comply with the following for non-IT products. Nonmanufacturer Rule per 13 CFR 121.406 (b)(1)(i), (b)(1)(ii) and (b)(1)(iii). What is the country of origin for the non-IT products you would be selling? Trade Agreements per FAR provision 52.225-5 and FAR clause 52.225-6. List details of how your non-IT products meet the Trade Agreements Act. Do you have a GSA/FSS/NASA SEWP/NITAAC schedule for these items? YES______ NO______ Schedule Number: ___________________ Expiration Date: _____________________ DISCLAIMER: This is a Request for Information (RFI) from industry in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e) and on the requirement, that exists for the VA Medical Center(s) identified in this RFI. This is not a request for quote and not a contract. This announcement is not a request for proposals; therefore, responses to the RFI are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked as proprietary will be handled accordingly. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. No classified information should be included in the RFI response. Should you have concerns regarding this RFI you may email the sender of this RFI. Thank you for your interest in doing business with the VA. To learn more about the VA Mission, Vision, Core Values & Goals visit https://department.va.gov/about/ AND https://department.va.gov/icare/ (38 C.F.R.Part 0) 2023 Live Recorded Event: VA's Mission to Serve All Who Served - SecVA WIMSA Event - March 16, 2023 (bcvp0rtal.com) To understand the latest updates on the Veterans First Contracting Program visit https://www.va.gov/osdbu/verification/veterans_first_contracting_program_adjustments_to_reflect_the_supreme_court_kingdomware_decision.asp To find out how to do business with the VA visit https://www.va.gov/osdbu/library/dbwva.asp To become a CVE-verified VOSB or SDVOSB visit https://vetbiz.va.gov/