65-Medical Supplies-Potential Sources Sought
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A. General Information

Europe Region seeks approval to initiate the standardization process for Anti-Embolism Stockings for its 55 Army, Navy, and US Air Force medical facilities in Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Southwest Asia. Standardization for this product line, Anti-Embolism Stockings, represents a previously standardized product line initiative for the Europe Region. The Europe Region originally completed this product line for standardization in 2003 and it expires March 31, 2008. This product line includes Anti-Embolism Stockings in the following sizes; Small, Medium, Large and Extra large and in short, regular, and long lengths. Vendors are required to supply all items listed in all sizes listed.

The primary objective of this program is to standardize the quality of care across this region based on a best value determination that represents the clinically preferred product or source(s) at the best possible price. It is also intended that standardized product be obtained through the DoD Prime Vendor Program, via USAMMCE.

The major facilities in the Region include but are not limited to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, U. S. Army Medical Activity Heidelberg, U. S. Army Medical Activity Bavaria, U. S. Army Health Center - Vicenza, 48th Medical Group RAF Lakenheath, 31st Medical Group Aviano, 52nd Medical Group Spangdahlem, 86th Medical Group Ramstein, 39th Medical Group Incirlik, 65th Medical Group Azores, U. S. Naval Hospital Naples, U. S. Naval Hospital Rota, U. S. Naval Hospital Sigonella, U. S. Army 30th Medical Brigade, and U. S. Army CENTCOM.

This standardization action is part of the Medical/Surgical Prime Vendor program executed by the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia (DSCP), Directorate of Medical Materiel. In order to participate, your company must have a Distribution and Pricing Agreement (DAPA) and a separate commercial agreement with the Prime Vendors for the program. This is pursuant to the DAPA clause by which DAPA holders agree to the Standardization process and to allow Prime Vendors to distribute their items. This Request for Quotes (RFQ) is a supplement to the Prime Vendor Program, and it is not a contract. For additional information regarding DSCPs Prime vendor program, please access their web site at https://dmmonline.dscp.dla.mil.

The resulting Regional Incentive Agreement RIA will be for a base period of two (2) years (24 months) from date of selection with three (3) 12-month option periods for a maximum of 5 years. Anticipated selection date is July 2008. The evaluation will be based on clinical, technical, and pricing factors. The Technical/Company and Clinical/Performance evaluation factors, when combined, are considered significantly more important than cost or price. As the technical and clinical evaluation results become more equal, price will become more important. The selection will be determined utilizing best value/ trade off criteria. The selection of a single vendor is anticipated. However, if no single vendor can meet the total requirement of the region, the Government reserves the right to make two or more selections for RIAs. In this event, selection would be based on a combination of MTF preference and product availability.

Point of Contact is Mrs. Marcee Whisenant, phone: 011-49-6221-172109, and e-mail marcee.whisenant@us,.army.mil

B. Products & Performance Required

The Europe Region is seeking product line items in the category of Anti-Embolism Stocking, which at a minimum includes the product lines below. Within this region, this product line has an estimated annual dollar requirement of $31,178. This forecast is based on historical prime vendor sales during a recent 12-month period. The top high volume usage lines for this project include:

Stocking AE 18mm sizes: SM, MED, LG, XL $23,175.93
Stocking AE 16mm sizes: SM, MED, LG, XL $5,591.64
Stocking AE 22mm sizes: SM $1,371.76
Stocking AE 19mm sizes: MED, LG $950.52
Stocking AE 15-20mm sizes: MED $88.38

At the request of the Europe Region MTFs, vendors will provide on-site support and in-servicing during implementation, educational resources and tools for clinical use of the product, conversion information, prime vendor order numbers, MSDS information, and itemization of the brands, types and packaging information of the products supplied by the vendor.

C. Instructions to Vendors

DAPA holders interested in participating in this standardization initiative should email their (1) Company name and address, (2) POC (Name and Phone Number, Fax Number, and E-mail address) to marcee.whisenant@us,.army.mil. All e-mail communication between vendors and the region must be digitally signed. All communications of significant acquisition milestones (such as invitations to participate, or notices of disqualification) will be digitally signed as well. Submissions must be received by 4:00 PM EST on the specified closing date of this RFQ. Vendors that fail to meet this submittal deadline will be disqualified from participating.

This process will include vendor requirements for providing electronic responses to technical criteria, no charge literature for clinical evaluation, and submission of electronic best price quotes. Due to the potential for e-mail to be lost in transmission from network security, etc., vendors are strongly encouraged to confirm with the Regional POC stated above their initial submission, best price submissions, and literature or other requested information has actually arrived at the Europe Regional Tri-Service Business Office (TRBO) via e-mail. Each submitting vendor is advised to confirm receipt, allowing adequate time for resubmission before the due date/time, should a problem occur with the first submission.

D. Evaluation Criteria

The Tri-Service Product Review Board (TPRB) is the governing board of the standardization process. This board includes clinicians and logisticians from the Military Treatment Facilities within the Europe Region. They are the deciding officials for this initiative.

The Europe Region intends to evaluate price quotes and select a vendor or vendors, without discussions. Vendor quotes should contain the vendors best product matches for the products or product lines requested in this announcement. Vendor quotes should contain the vendors best responses to all technical and/or company questions listed in this announcement. Vendor quotes should contain the vendors best tiered-pricing discounts off of the vendors DAPA pricing (based on committed volume of 80% of the total requirements of the MTFs in the Region). Additionally, the Europe Region reserves the right to conduct discussions and request revised quotes, if it is determined to be necessary. If a down selection is made during the evaluation process, the Europe Region may limit the number of quotes to the greatest number that will permit an efficient competition among vendors.

Phase I - Technical/Company Evaluation Process. Interested vendors are to respond to this FBO announcement by emailing their intent to participate to the above POC by the required response date. Based on vendor responses, the TRBO POC will request detailed responses to the technical/company criteria from each vendor. Vendors are required to meet/provide responses to the technical/company criteria stated below. All technical/company criteria are weighted equally. The responses will be reviewed under the purview of the TPRB and the Clinical Product Team (CPT) to determine acceptability of each vendor. After review of the technical/company criteria, those vendors who meet these criteria will be qualified/invited to participate in the clinical/performance evaluation.

1. In general acceptability for purposes of evaluation of technical/company criteria is defined as follows:
a) Based on the vendors responses, the evaluators have reasonable confidence that the line or products and/or services submitted meet the medical standards of care of the community applicable to such products or services.
b) The vendors information provided is factually correct. Any misrepresentation of information will disqualify the vendor from further consideration.
2. Each technical/company criteria below require additional, more specific definition of technical acceptability. This specific standard for technical acceptability will be set forth with the individual criterion.
3. The vendors who meet the following technical /company criteria will be qualified/invited to participate in the clinical/performance evaluation process via an e-mail communication with each vendor. All communication of significant acquisition milestones (such as invitations to participate, or notices of disqualification) must be digitally signed.

The following Technical/Company Evaluation Criteria have been established for the standardization initiative:

1. At a minimum your company MUST manufacture and/or distribute Anti-Embolism Stockings in the following sizes; Small, Medium, Large and Extra large and in short, regular, and long lengths. A complete line of product is defined as the MTFs requirements for usage items in the product line. Usage items are defined for this report as items used in the Europe Theater within a twelve month period. Vendors MUST provide a complete list of items supplied (catalog, etc.) and product literature in response to this RFQ. Vendors are required to supply all items listed in all sizes and styles listed. (Vendors who do not have a complete product line as above will be disqualified in Phase I).
2. Vendor MUST have a DAPA or be in the process of applying for a DAPA number for the Anti-Embolism Stocking product line. Provide the DAPA number in response to this RFQ (Vendors without a DAPA number will be disqualified in Phase I).
3. Vendor MUST have a separate agreement with the DoD prime vendor (PV), (currently the prime vendor is Owens & Minor), for distribution in the Europe Region. Note that vendors whose products are not available through the regional PV will be disqualified.) Provide documentation of agreement with Prime Vendor in response to this RFQ.
4. Vendor MUST submit discounts off DAPA for all products included in this standardization initiative. Note: vendors that fail to submit a discount from DAPA will be disqualified. Where lower uncommitted Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) prices are available, DAPA holders are required by previous agreement to provide the uncommitted FSS price as the DAPA price. Vendors shall NOT quote uncommitted FSS prices as the discounted price for purposes of this standardization initiative. Vendors are to provide a quote on discounts in response to this RFQ. Vendors who do not provide discounts off DAPA for ALL products in Phase III will be disqualified
5. Vendor MUST provide electronic and hard copy proposed pricing and a competitive product cross-reference in electronic Microsoft Excel format upon request.
6. Vendors MUST have a vendor representative for the Europe Region Medical Treatment Facilities to provide sufficient product implementation services and customer servicing to the multi-service regional facilities. Provide contact information, i.e. name, address, phone number, and e-mail address in response to this RFQ.
7. Vendor MUST provide all history of BACK ORDERS and RECALLS that occurred during the most recent 24-month period, for the Anti-Embolism Stocking product line including; dates, duration, cause, and resolution. Vendors will not have an opportunity to provide additional information on back orders and recalls during any subsequent stage in this evaluation. Vendors are encouraged to submit all information deemed relevant (i.e., positive resolutions, etc.) in response to this RFQ. The Government will not contact any provided points of contact in response to this question.
8. Vendor MUST provide statement revealing all products containing synthesized polymer (plastic/rubber) are clearly labeled as latex free/safe in response to this RFQ.
9. The product literature will be furnished at (no charge) to the government. Vendor MUST ship or e-mail literature necessary for evaluation via United States Parcel Service eliminating delays that occurs with Europes Custom Offices. Provide acknowledgement of this requirement in response to this RFQ.
10. Vendor MUST provide proof that there are directions for laundering and care of the product item in response to this RFQ.

Phase II - Clinical/Performance Evaluation Process. The multi-disciplinary CPT formed by the TPRB will request literature (no charge) from the product line to be evaluated at select Military Treatment facilities. The CPT will evaluate the product line using a literature review in a non-clinical (non-patient) setting. As mentioned in the technical/company criteria above, vendors are required to send literature to the Europe Tri-Service Regional Business Office (TRBO) via e-mail address to marcee.whisenant@us.army.mil or United States Parcel Service (USPS) to the following APO address:

Commander, Europe Regional Medical Command
Attn: G-4 TriService Standardization
Mr. Rob Halliday, (011-49-6221-172108)
CMR 442
APO AE 09042
Vendors will be given 14 calendar days from the issue of the notice to ship literature for the clinical evaluation at Phase II. Vendors who do not meet the deadline for the shipment of literature by 5:00PM EST on the 14th Calendar day after the issue date of the notice to supply literature will be disqualified from the standardization process. NOTE: All vendors must send TRBO POC verification regarding the date of shipment from the vendor, and anticipated delivery date.

Specific MTFs will evaluate the clinical/performance criteria using a Likert scale, with a one to five rating. One (1) is equal to not acceptable, two (2) is equal to minimally acceptable, three (3) is equal to acceptable, four (4) is equal to most acceptable, and five (5) is equal to highly acceptable. All clinical/performance criteria are equally weighted. The CPT has established a target threshold of 3.00 for the clinically acceptability of products for standardization. The CPT will analyze this acceptability as being at or near 3.00 depending on the break in the average scores and how closely scores are clustered near the Acceptability Target Threshold of 3.00. Vendors scoring below the actual acceptability threshold will be determined to be clinically unacceptable, and be disqualified from further consideration for this standardization initiative.

To determine acceptability, a CPT comprised of medical professionals from multiple disciplines will evaluate the products based on the evaluation criteria below. The CPT intends clinical evaluations be conducted in a non-clinical (non-patient) setting.

The following Clinical/Performance Evaluation Criteria have been established for this standardization initiative:

Vendor products meet the Clinically Acceptable Target Threshold of 3.00

1. (Patient Safety) - Literature supports the toes are accessible for examination.
a. Visual accessibility to toes is required to show the product is not restricting patient circulation.
b. This criterion will be evaluated 1 time by each participating MTF using literature review material.
2. (Patient Safety) - Literature supports that all stockings are available with no latex.
a. Product item should not cause further harm to the patient.
b. This criterion will be evaluated 1 time by each participating MTF using literature review material.

Phase III - Pricing Analysis Process. After the clinical/performance evaluations are completed and analyzed, all vendors in the clinical evaluation group who met the minimum 3.00 clinical threshold (depending on the break in the average scores and how closely scores are clustered near the Acceptability Target Threshold as determined by the CPT) will be contacted to submit their lowest pricing quotes as well as product cross-reference data. Quotes will be based on a committed volume of 80% of the total Europe Regional requirement. Vendors will be provided fourteen (14) calendar days to submit their price quotes in the prescribed format as above via email. Price quotes must be received by 4:00 PM EST on the 14th calendar day. Failure to respond within this timeframe or failure to submit incentive discounts from their DAPA prices will result in the vendor being disqualified from further participation in this RIA initiative. The Europe Region intends to evaluate quotes and select a vendor or vendors, without discussions as noted above. However, the Europe Region reserves the right to conduct discussions and request revised pricing, if determined to be necessary.

Clinical/performance and technical/company factors will be weighted more heavily than price. As the technical and clinical evaluation results become more equal, price will become more important. Pricing will be evaluated based on best value to the government and will be based on a committed volume for a two year period with possible one-year option periods (not to exceed 5 years). The following elements will be considered in the pricing analysis:
1. The impact of RIA prices on the Region (Post-Standardization Costs) is considered more important than the other pricing elements.
2. Impact of Unmatched Lines.
3. Consideration of stock keeping units (SKUs) by each vendor. The Europe Region intends to reduce the number of stock keeping units (SKUs) that must be handled per period. Vendors that can supply the complete range of clinically required product, without unnecessary numbers of SKUs for minimally differentiated products, will be more likely to provide the best value solution for the government in this standardization initiative.
Due to the potential for Base DAPA prices to be inflated, the Impact of RIA prices on the Europe Region is considered more important than other pricing elements.