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This is a Sources Sought notice only. This is not a request for quotes and no contract will be awarded from this announcement. The Government will not provide any reimbursement for responses submitted in response to this Source Sought notice. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation.
If a solicitation is issued it shall be announced at a later date, and all interest parties must respond to that solicitation announcement separately. Responses to this notice are not a request to be added to a prospective bidders list or to receive a copy of the solicitation
The purpose of this announcement is to perform market research to gain knowledge of potential qualified sources and their size classification relative to NAICS 561990, with a size standard $16.5 Million. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Network Contracting Office 1 (NCO 1) is seeking to identify any vendor capable of providing Nuclear Radiation Health Physics Coverage at the White River Junction VAMC per the Performance Work Statement below.
This Sources Sought notice provides an opportunity for respondents to submit their capability and availability to provide the requirement described below. Vendors are encouraged to submit information relative to their capabilities to fulfill this requirement, in the form of a statement that addresses the specific requirement identified in this Sources Sought. Information received from this Sources Sought shall be utilized to facilitate the Contracting Officer s review of the market base, for acquisition planning, size determination, and procurement strategy.
Submission Instructions: Interested parties who consider themselves qualified to perform the services are invited to submit a response to this Sources Sought Notice by 9 AM EST, 31 March, 2023. All responses under this Sources Sought Notice must be emailed to Kenya Mitchell with RFQ #36C24123Q0392 in the subject line. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged, and no feedback or evaluations will be provided to companies regarding their submissions.
Interested parties should complete the attached Sources Sought Worksheet. Parties may submit additional information related to their capabilities, provided it contains all the requirements contained in the Sources Sought Worksheet. Responses to this Sources Sought shall not exceed 8 pages. In addition, all submissions should be provided electronically in a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format.


Attachment 1
Sources Sought Worksheet
QUALIFICATION INFORMATION:
Company / Institute Name: _______________________________________________________
Address: ______________________________________________________________________
Phone Number: ________________________________________________________________
Point of Contact: _______________________________________________________________
E-mail Address: ________________________________________________________________
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) #:Â ___________________________________________________
CAGE Code: __________________________________________________________________
SAM Registered: (Y / N)
Other available contract vehicles applicable to this sources sought (GSA/FSS/NASA SEWP/ETC): __________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS:
VIP Verified SDVOSB: (Y / N)
VIP Verified VOSB: (Y / N)
8(a): (Y / N)
HUBZone: (Y / N)
Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business: (Y / N)
Women-Owned Small Business: (Y / N)
Small Business: (Y / N)
NOTE: Respondent claiming SDVOSB and VOSB status shall be registered, and Center for Veterans Enterprise (CVE) verified in VetBiz Registry www.vetbiz.gov.
BASED ON THE RESPONSES TO THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE/MARKET RESEARCH, THIS REQUIREMENT MAY BE SET-ASIDE FOR SDVOSB, VOSB, SMALL BUSINESSES OR PROCURED THROUGH FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION.
CAPABILITY STATEMENT:
Provide a brief capability and interest in providing the service as listed in Attachment 2 PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT with enough information to determine if your company can meet the requirement. The capabilities statement for this Sources Sought is not a Request for Quotation, Request for Proposal, or Invitation for Bid, nor does it restrict the Government to an ultimate acquisition approach, but rather the Government is requesting a short statement regarding the company s ability to provide the services outlined in the PWS. Any commercial brochures or currently existing marketing material may also be submitted with the capabilities statement. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. The Government will not pay for information solicited. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation.
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Attachment 2
PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

Summary: Furnish all labor, tools, equipment, material and travel to perform Nuclear Radiation Health Physics Coverage for the Nuclear Medicine, Research, and Radiological Departments.
Hours of Coverage: 0800-1600hrs Monday through Friday, excluding National Holidays.
Response Time: This contract includes intervening calls and emergent calls between scheduled inspections. In an emergent situation a telephonic response is required within 30 minutes of notification and, if requested, the Contractor shall be on site within 2 hours (i.e... spills, equipment failure...). All other work as scheduled by the Center's Radiation Safety Officer will commence and proceed progressively to accomplishment without undue delay. All work shall be in accordance with good commercial practice and conform to all NRC and Joint Commission rules and regulations.
Due to the sensitive nature of radiation safety and imaging physics services, all items within this statement of work shall be provided by employees of the bidder. Subcontracting is prohibited.
Qualification of Vendor: The contractor shall obtain all necessary licenses and/or permits required to perform this work as a Health Physicist and Radiation Safety Officer under the NRC, NHPP and Joint Commission rules and regulations. The RSO shall be qualified to serve on a limited scope medical use permit and broad scope research permit.
The personnel will perform a function that requires them to access VA system or VA sensitive information.
Specifications of Work:
Work requested covers three aspects. The first is to be named Radiation Safety Officer for the limited scope medical permit to use unsealed radioactivity. This permit could also be for broad scope research use in the future. The second aspect is for health physics consultation for the radiation safety program of Nuclear Medicine and Research. The third is for diagnostic medical physics services including x-ray, nuclear medicine, MRI, CT, and ultrasound performance evaluations.
The vendor shall perform the functions of the Radiation Safety Officer for the VA White River Junction radioactive materials permit and x-ray program.
Provide recommendations for applications, renewals, and draft amendments to NRC Licensing and Compliance Divisions also compliance with 10-CFR Part 20 & Part-35. This includes recommendations for preparing updates of necessary ALARA documentation. Permit draft amendments shall be provided to the permittee for review and signature upon request.
Participate on site in permit inspections from NHPP or NRC.
Participate on site in accreditation or OIG inspections as necessary.
Attend (in person) for quarterly Radiation Safety Committee (RSC) meetings.
Review personnel monitoring records for federal compliance, and ALARA considerations. Summarize findings for presentation at the RSC meeting.
Immediately review personnel monitoring records which exceed ALARA thresholds.
Provide routine updates to the RSC regarding accreditation program changes such as the Joint Commission.
Provide quarterly updates to the RSC regarding NHPP program changes/memos.
Provide quarterly updates to the RSC regarding regulatory changes from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Provide fetal dose assessments for patients and staff with summary at the RSC meetings.
Provide patient dose assessments for nuclear medicine and imaging studies conducted at the VA WRJ with summary at the RSC meetings.
Provide Radiology and Nuclear Medicine policy and practice review at permittee request.
Provide shielding evaluations meeting NCRP 147 at permittee request.
Provide skin dose assessments for any patient exceeding facility thresholds meeting TJC and NHPP requirements. Turnaround time of skin dose assessments is expected to be less than 48h from receipt.
Provide template documentation for annual RSO audit, review and summarize at least annually for RSC.
Provide in-service radiation safety training of research, nursing, intensive care, or any other personnel as necessary. Training provided should be approved for nursing CE credit. Training is to be set up with the requesting department, Nuclear Medicine, Research and Radiology.
Provide fluoroscopy training material for non-radiologist fluoroscopists which meets NHPP directives, TJC accreditation requirements, and best practices.
Provide a back up RSO plan meeting NHPP requirements.
Provide evidence that the RSO can be available on site within 2 hours and available via the phone within 30 minutes.

The vendor shall perform the function of a consulting health physicist for the nuclear medicine and research programs at the VA White River Junction.
Provide in person compliance visits at least quarterly, with recommendations for regulatory deficiencies or infractions. Provide recommendations for correction of violations.
At least quarterly, monitor external radiation levels throughout the facility, measuring external dose rates around areas where radioactive materials are stored and used.
At least quarterly, perform wipe tests for measurement of removable radioactive contamination in areas where radioactive materials are handled.
At least quarterly, review radiopharmaceutical purchases, receipt records, inventory control procedures, and waste disposal procedures.
At least quarterly, review procedures with personnel to determine and assure compliance with ALARA requirements. Recommendations as necessary to further reduce exposure.
Check of ventilation control equipment, survey instruments and dose measurement equipment with calibrations of portables to be accomplished with a two (2) week turn around. Ascertain that each instrument is currently calibrated, working properly, and within specifications.
Quarterly sealed source inventory and storage area survey check, plus six-month leak testing on sealed sources as required by NRC.
Attendance in person required at the quarterly Radiation Safety Committee meetings. Center's Radiation Safety Officer will coordinate.
Provide spill response as requested by the permittee.
Provide in person annual radiation safety training to nuclear medicine staff covering permit uses and conditions.
Provide template policy documentation for nuclear medicine department to maintain standing orders process.
Provide access to template material necessary to facilitate radiation safety program.
Provide triennial DOT training to nuclear medicine staff which includes ASRT CEUs.
Provide radiation safety training to radiology staff which includes ASRT CEUs.
Provide ongoing assistance and guidance with occupational dose monitoring vendor including recommendations for correction of records.
Provide Form V and Form IV equivalent documentations for each occupational worker as necessary.
Oversee footprint management for areas using unsealed radioactivity.
Provide annual accuracy testing and report of dose calibrator meeting most recent version of ANSI N42.13.
Calibration of all handheld radiation detection instruments used to make compliance measurements. Calibrations are to be conducted initially, annually and after any major repair meeting NUREG 1556 Vol 9.
Calibration of handheld instruments is to include minor repair and battery replacements.
Supply decay charts for dose calibrator calibration sources, including acceptable error limits such that the daily calibrator check may easily comply with regulations.
Provide evidence that the HP can be available on site within 2 hours and available via the phone within 30 minutes.

The vendor shall perform the function of a diagnostic medical physicist for the VA White River Junction.
Provide shielding integrity checks for all new installations of x-ray equipment.
Provide recommendations for validation of workload from x-ray imaging equipment to confirm shielding recommended is adequate to meet public dose regulations.
Provide MRI safety I and II training to staff member who require it.
Provide guidance on appropriateness of MRI scanning protocol for MRI conditional devices.
Provide CT dose optimization training to CT technologists on an annual basis which includes ASRT CEUs.
Participate in quarterly CT subcommittee meetings in person providing guidance on CT protocols and patient doses.
Provide local policy review and guidance to meet most recent NHPP, TJC, and professional society practices (for example, patient gonadal and fetal shielding ).
Oversee footprint management for x-ray equipment used at facility.
Provide training to clinical engineering staff for dose output testing on all necessary makes and models of equipment for post repair testing.
Provide evidence that the diagnostic medical physicist can be available on site within 2 hours and available via the phone within 30 minutes.
Conduct initial testing of x-ray producing imaging equipment upon receipt and prior to clinical use. Annual follow up testing will be performed on a quarterly schedule. The performance evaluation is conducted with non-invasive x-ray analyzers and includes a comprehensive computerized detailed report including the establishment of skin-entry doses for routine procedures on each unit in compliance with NHPP regulations and The Joint Commission accreditation requirements. Assessments must include all radiation protection aspects of each room and each system in terms of x-ray generation operating parameters, image performance, and scatter radiation. According to the current interpretation of the regulations by NHPP inspectors, all x-ray equipment requires physics testing prior to initial clinical use. Further, the vendor shall conduct testing of X-ray equipment as necessary following major repair, tube replacement, or questionable performance. The testing frequency will follow the previous year s annual testing with the timing of annual testing to be determined by the COTR.
The testing shall include at a minimum:
General Radiography: Assessment of equipment shall include measurement of kVp, mA, time, reproducibility, linearity, accuracy, HVL, and collimation; high contrast resolution and low contrast detectability. Patient skin entrance exposures shall be calculated annually for posting in the control booth, based on typical kVp and mAs supplied by VAMC for various views.
Fluoroscopy: Assessment of equipment shall include kVp and HVL accuracy, skin-entry dose for small, medium, and large patients for all operating parameters of the equipment to assist in compliance with VA regulations requiring action when skin entry doses exceed 3 Gy, or other equivalent regulations. An estimated procedure fluoro time beyond which investigation should be triggered to determine whether or not the 3 Gy, or another applicable threshold has been reached is provided. Assistance with the calculation of the patient dose for such cases is also provided, for no extra charge. Scatter radiation measurements, air kerma accuracy, cumulative air kerma accuracy, high contrast resolution, and low contrast resolution tests shall be included.
Bone Densitometers: Testing shall include patient skin entrance exposure for four standard protocols, with a more detailed assessment of different operating modes for one of those protocols, and scatter measurements.
Miscellaneous equipment: such as cabinet x-ray systems are tested to FDA standards of external exposure rates, door interlocks and beam-on indicators, as well as radiation output with varying kV and timer settings as applicable to the system.
Computed Tomography: Annual CT system evaluations per The Joint Commission and ACR stipulations (if necessary) shall be inclusive of dosimetry measurements and comparisons to displayed CTDI to ensure accuracy within 20%, or manufacturer s standards if applicable; Half Value Layer; collimation vs. dose distribution; mAs linearity; and scatter. Radiation beam thickness measurements of all available NxT combinations are made by exposing radiochromic film, with graphical analysis at the full width half maximum (FWHM) of each width by means of specialized graphical analysis software. Up to 4 clinical protocols are evaluated for CT number accuracy, low-contrast detectability, contrast to noise ratio, and high contrast resolution, using a Gammex-464 imaging phantom. Image uniformity, artifacts, distance measurement accuracy, congruence of laser and slice plane and table incrementation accuracy, and scout prescription accuracy are also evaluated. Two or three additional protocols are reviewed for examining technique factors, dose levels and appropriateness of image reconstruction methods. Gray level performance of CT acquisition monitors is performed visually and by photometric measurements.
The CT performance evaluation also includes patient dose information for all combinations of operating parameters applicable to our machine. These dose values are flagged relative to ACR and NEMA/AAPM criteria, and guidance is offered to assist staff in applying this new data, evaluating operating protocols relative to patient dose, and calculating radiation risk for specific patients as necessary. CT fluoro skin dose estimates are also included for any system capable of CT fluoro.
Conduct initial testing of nuclear medicine imaging equipment upon receipt and prior to clinical use. The testing shall include at a minimum:
Intrinsic uniformity and artifact evaluation, system uniformity and artifact evaluation, intrinsic spatial resolution, high contrast resolution, relative system sensitivity, intrinsic energy resolution, count rate parameters, and formatter / Video Display as needed. Also, system interlocks, SPECT-CT CTDI measurement (as applicable), review of technologist s QC program, and a summary of the medical physics evaluation.
Conduct initial testing of non-ionizing imaging equipment upon request, annually, and where applicable, prior to clinical use. The testing shall include at a minimum:
MRI Scanners: Each scanner acceptance test and annual test there after shall include the following list. These items cover the quality assurance testing of an MRI system on an annual basis in support of ACR and Joint Commission accreditation. The testing will include, at a minimum, the following items or their equivalents: magnetic field homogeneity, slice position accuracy, slice thickness accuracy, Image uniformity coil checks, SNR coil checks, Alignment light accuracy, High contrast resolution, low contrast resolution (CNR), geometric accuracy, artifact evaluation, acquisition workstation monitor performance, evaluation of technologist QC program, and assessment of the MRI safety program.
Ultrasound: Each ultrasound unit annual testing shall include: physical and mechanical inspection which assures the mechanical integrity of the equipment and the safety of patient and operator, image uniformity and artifact survey which identifies the presence of artifacts, geometric accuracy, which will use scanner calipers to measure known distances between phantom test targets in the vertical and horizontal directions for each transducer, system sensitivity which will visually determine the maximum depth of visualization of phantom targets for each transducer, contrast resolution: visualization of anechoic and low contrast spherical objects, ultrasound scanner electronic image display performance and primary interpretation display performance. Display characteristics are evaluated by gray scale response and luminance readings using SMPTE pattern.

Guaranteed Uptime: N/A
Updates: All updates of information will be provided to Chief Radiologic Technologist VAMC White River Junction.
Documentation Requirements: All equipment, stationary and portable, will be catalogued by the Contractor with the dates and type of service rendered noted thereon. A written report of each inspection and calibration shall be furnished to the Contracting Officer or the Centers Radiation Safety Officer. The contractor shall obtain the signature of the supervisor in charge of the equipment to certify as to services performed and shall leave a copy of the document containing the signature with the Contracting Officer or COTR. The documentation shall indicate the following:
A check list of items checked for each piece of equipment;
Conditions found;
Repairs or calibration needed and services performed.
Report should include information required in SECTION - C paragraph-c #9 and #10
Services and parts not covered by contract: None
COTR: Preston Robison

Attachments/Links