DOCUMENT
H -- Amarillo 2018 Legionella Water Testing - Attachment
- Notice Date
- 12/5/2017
- Notice Type
- Attachment
- NAICS
- 541620
— Environmental Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- 00504;Department of Veterans Affairs;Contracting Section;7201 I-40 West Suite 100;Amarillo TX 79106
- ZIP Code
- 79106
- Solicitation Number
- 36C25718Q0219
- Response Due
- 12/13/2017
- Archive Date
- 2/11/2018
- Point of Contact
- Lula Hill
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- The Amarillo VA Health Care System (AVAHCS) is seeking Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) or Small Business (SB) sources capable of meeting the requirement listed below. The acquisition will be accomplished using commercial item procedures in accordance with FAR Part 13. NOTE: TO QUALIFY SDVOSB AND VOSB VENDORS MUST BE CERTIFIED IN THE VA VENDOR INFORMATION PAGES (VIP) DATABASE. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is 541620. Any SDVOSB, VOSB or Small Business firms who wish to identify their interests and capability to provide this service must provide information by notifying the Contract Specialist no later than NOON PM Central Time, December13, 2017. Notification shall be e-mailed to Lula Hill, at lula.hill3@va.gov. DISCLAIMER This Source Sought Notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this Notice that is marked as proprietary will be handled accordingly. In accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation, responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this Notice. SCOPE: Statement of Work for Legionella Water Testing I. INTRODUCTION The VA VISN 17 Health Care Network for the Amarillo VA Medical Center located in Amarillo, Texas. A contract will be established to maintain the Healthcare-Associated Legionella Disease Prevention program at this location based on Veterans Health Administration (VHA) policy, VHA Directive 1061. The VA requires a contractor with over 5 years of experience in Legionella HACCP type plan development and Legionella Water Testing. This contract will be utilized by this medical center in VISN 17 through follow on orders of our choosing for: A. Environmental Water Testing. B. Onsite training, troubleshooting support, guidance on remediation and other associated issues. II. C. HAACP Plan Review and Support. SCOPE OF WORK The scope of this project is comprised of the above three task areas. This medical center will make its own determination as to needs as appropriate. Environmental Legionella Water Testing, The contractor will provide services to accomplish environmental water testing that covers the following 3 scenarios. A cost/test basis for routine quarterly testing in which the contractor will be responsible for drawing samples. A cost/test basis to perform retesting following remediation or other circumstances in which the contractor will be responsible for drawing samples. A pricing basis for more detailed speciation analysis when a case is identified to help determine if the species responsible for the patient's illness is detected in environmental samples. Samples drawn may be by VA staff or contractor provided personnel under this contract. This decision will be at the discretion of this facility and may vary throughout the course of the contract. Laboratories that process the water samples for Legionella must be certified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Environmental Legionella Isolation Techniques Evaluation (ELITE) program or the Public Health England (PHE) Legionella External Quality Assessment (EQA) scheme as proficient at performing the culture of Legionella from environmental samples. Laboratories must also have environmental microbiology accreditation by a recognized accrediting program e.g., EMLAP, NELAP. The contractor shall provide personnel, management and supervision, transportation, equipment, and materials to perform legionella water testing analysis and other ancillary services. Transportation costs covered includes both contractor staff and all aspects of sample transport for both contractor collected samples and VA collected samples. Samples will be transported in such a manner as to ensure the integrity of the specimen in accordance with analytical methodologies and the contractor's requirements. The contractor will be responsible for all sample transport costs by providing a courier service for pick up and transport or by paying charges for a commercial transport service (i.e., FedEx or UPS). There is no government furnished equipment. For Contractor drawn and VA drawn samples the contractor will provide boxes, bottles, chain of custody, labels, packaging and all other required items including shipping costs i.e. dry ice or cold packs etc. Quantities of expected routine quarterly testing are provided as an attachment with a breakdown by facility. This list of estimated testing is identified in Attachment, Table 1. Sample quantities and locations may vary and sample quantities are not guaranteed by the government. For routine and quarterly testing, laboratories shall minimally determine if the Legionella detected in environmental samples is the species Legionella pneumophila, identify if it is serogroup 1, other serogroups (2-14) or other legionella species. The laboratory shall also be able to perform more detailed speciation analysis for non-routine situations i.e. to support investigation in response to an identified legionella case. Rapid testing methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) will not be used. It is noted that our facility is currently utilizing MIOX as a supplementary source of Chlorine. Samples taken in response to identification of a patient case shall include both a swab and water collection. Sampling protocol shall meet the requirements of VHA Directive 1061 and the accredited laboratory that will be processing the Legionella water samples. A chain of custody form used by the laboratory shall be filled out by the individual taking the samples. The chain of custody form will accompany the samples and the completed copy received by the lab shall be submitted with the Lab sampling results to the VA location where the water samples were taken. Samples shall be shipped at a delivery rate so the samples are received in the time required by the lab. Samples shall not be taken or shipped near the end of the work week as needed to avoid additional shipping time increase due to non-business days (i.e. weekend, holidays) that would compromise the integrity of the sampling results. The sampling protocol shall be submitted to facility requesting environmental legionella water testing. The contractor shall provide documentation of their sampling protocol procedures that has been reviewed in writing for consistency with VA requirements. The contractors review is to be provided to this facility. Test Results are expected in 11days of sample draw and are not to exceed 14 days. The contractor shall work with the facility to maximize the process to support an 11 day turn around. Each sample taken shall be tested to determine water temperature, level of residual biocide and pH. These tests shall be performed by the contractor on site for contractor drawn samples or VA staff for facility drawn samples. Test result reporting is to be formatted to include this information in a manner that easily associates the culture results to the additional test data. VA collected data is to be included in submitted reports when provided to the contractor. If requested by the facility the contractor shall leave a copy of the temperature, pH and residual biocide levels measured before leaving the facility. The VA shall have final approval on the format used for test results. The Contractor shall outline a plan to facilitate the management of Environmental Validation data. The Contractor's plan shall include procedures for: Providing all sample analysis reports via email to this facility's COR. A web based collection point may be used in addition. Analytical reports shall include a signed copy of the chain of custody, identification of sampling locations, analytical results and method detection limits and description of test methodology. Providing the VAMC COR with progress reports on sampling completion dates and supplemental actions to be taken. Including the quantity and location of outlets tested and the frequency of such testing. Testing shall be in accordance with the requirements of VHA Directive 1061. Developing a chain of custody to identify the contractor's responsibility for; collecting environmental water samples, ensuring that the water samples are transferred to the environmental testing laboratory, receiving the results, and reporting the results to the COR. Emailed results will be in excel format. Contractor will also provide the results in a PDF document. Once VA/ VHA establish a nationwide database with data uploading capability the contractor shall use that format. Routine quarterly testing will be scheduled in advance. Alternately the contractors shall respond on site for quarterly testing within 5 business days of a task order. The contractor shall respond on site within 3 working days of notice when tasked to sample for retests following remediation. All contractor provided samplers shall have received training. Documentation of training shall be provided to the VA for all contractor samplers. The limit of detection of legionella is to be no higher than 10 cfu/ml The contractor shall establish a procedure with our facility ensuring ample sample containers and associated items are on hand to expeditiously process VA post remediation sampling performed by VA staff. Contractor will culture samples in accordance with standard methods for Legionella isolation by culture as described in the ISO standards 11731-1:1998 and 11731-2:2004 A Monthly status report is to be provided to the VISN 17 indicating all testing performed in the previous month and testing already scheduled for the following month. Onsite training, troubleshooting support, guidance on remediation and other associated issues. The contractor is to provide a daily rate for site visits. The visit may cover a range of needs including training, troubleshooting support, guidance on remediation, support at meetings. The cost is to be all inclusive covering travel and other miscellaneous expenses. Training topics may include but not be limited to training in drawing samples, remediation protocols and processes, control strategies, and troubleshooting. HAACP Plan Review and Support. Services shall be offered to perform an annual review of the existing program and ongoing support by attending onsite monthly legionella program meetings. The HACCP Plan is based on the following principles: A review of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Type Water Safety Plan for Legionella for domestic and cooling systems to identify risk and implement control measures. The HACCP type Water Safety Plan shall utilize requirements and best practices from the following: ASH RAE Standard 188P. Prevention of Legionella Associated with Building Water Systems VHA Directive 2008-010, Prevention of Legionella Disease VHA Directive 2009-009, Domestic Hot Water Temperature Limits for Legionella Prevention and Scald Control OSHA Technical Manual - Section Ill: Chapter 7 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) ASH RAE Guideline 12-2000. ASH RAE Standard Minimizing the Risk of Legionella Associated with Building Water Systems. Joint Commission Environment of Care Standards - EC 02.05.001 CTI Guidelines WTB-148. Legionella Guideline: Best practices for Control of Legionella VHA Directive 1061 (Draft) Utilize final standard if published at time of award General HACCP Plan Principle Includes: Conduct Hazard Analysis - Collect and evaluate information on hazards associated with the building water system to decide which hazards are significant and must be addressed. Determine Critical Control Points (CCP) - These are steps within a process at which biological, chemical or physical factors can be controlled to prevent or eliminate a hazard or reduce it to an acceptable level. CCPs are those locations in the building water system at which hazard control is applied. This includes the inspection and review of current plumbing fixtures at points of use (i.e. shower heads, faucets, etc.) to determine compliance with VA design criteria and standards. Consideration should be given to hands-free fixtures and related water conservation devices that present conflict with infection control practices. Establish critical limits for each CCP -This is a maximum, minimum or range of values to which a biological chemical or physical parameter must be controlled at a CCP, to prevent, eliminate or reduce to an acceptable level the occurrence of the hazard. Establish a system to monitor control of CCPs - This includes the development and implementation of planned sequence of observations or measurements to assess whether a CCP is under control and to produce an accurate record for future use in verification. In this step in the process a set of procedures shall be developed describing a continuous process of monitoring all the CCPs. Note - the minimum requirements in VA Directive 1061 must be met. Establish Corrective Actions - to be taken when monitoring indicates that certain CCP s are not under control. Development of a procedure that defines the actions necessary to correct the conditions at a CCP when monitoring shows that results are falling outside the critical limits. Establish procedures for verification confirm the HACCP plan is working effectively Development of procedures that determine the validity of the HACCP plan and if it is operating as required. Process Flow Diagrams for the water systems with CCP steps identified - Review schematic step wise illustration of how potable water and utility water (non-potable) are processed in the facilities. Hazard Analysis Summaries - Plan includes the name and number of each processing step in each identified building water system and the potential hazards for each processing step. The plan indicates whether the team judges the risk at each step to be significant and briefly states the basis for that decision. It lists hazard control that is currently applied and/or identifies hazard controls that could be applied to prevent, eliminate or reduce the hazard at each control point. CCPs are selected and indicated in the hazard analysis summaries and shall also be indicated on the process flow diagrams. Monitoring Schedules - Are developed and documented for each CCP. They include the frequency with which each CCP is monitored and the timeframe within which corrective actions shall be taken when critical limits are exceeded. Note - the minimum requirements in VA Directive 1061 must be met. Equipment Device Maintenance procedures are developed for each potable or utility device identified in the process flow diagram and includes Requirements for the design, maintenance and operation of potable water systems including: New Construction and Renovation - The HACCP plan addresses potential hazards from: Possible cross connections between potable and non-potable water Inadequate access to equipment with water storage capacity such as water expansion tanks, water hammer arrestors and water heaters Dead legs or low flow portions of the piping system Stratification in hot or cold water storage tanks and heaters Heat transfer from hot or cold water piping New Systems Startup and Shutdown: The HACCP plan includes procedures for: Cleaning and disinfection before commissioning any new system. Shutdown, including any draining, purging, cleaning treatment and control settings Any unplanned loss of operating energy, loss of water treatment chemicals or system component repair or replacement. Restarting safely from a drained shutdown condition or from an un drained shutdown. Monitoring and treatments following water supply interruptions or breaks in water supply piping. The method and frequency of temperature measurements in water heaters and distribution systems. System Maintenance: The HACCP plan includes: Inspection frequencies for water containing vessels and system components Maintenance procedures based on equipment manufacturers' recommendations for system components (e.g. hot and cold storage tanks, ice machines, expansion tanks, water filters etc.). Corrective action log templates System component operating manuals Water Treatment: The HACCP plan includes: A Review of the water treatment/filter plants, including operation practices and water storage facilities for compliance with VHA and State requirements. Monitoring method and frequency of temperature measurement in the hot and cold systems and oxidant residual measurement in the hot and cold water system. Inspection and maintenance schedule for all water treatment. Included secondary systems that may be in place. Emergency Disinfection: The HACCP plan develops site-specific procedures to be followed if there is suspected legionella within the potable water system. Preventative measures for cooling towers and evaporative condensers including: Equipment siting if applicable New system start up if applicable System maintenance including the frequency of inspections, basin and sump cleaning, and purging of low flow zones. Water treatment including a plan for control of microbiological activity, scale, and corrosion. Shutdown and startup procedures that shall include chemical pretreatment steps as well as system drainage requirements for shutdown periods. Disinfection procedures Validation Summary - Includes justification and scientific evidence used to validate the selection of each CCP and each critical limit selected by the HACCP team. It also validates that the selection of critical limits to comply with local guidance and regulations. Verification Schedule - is determined and lists all verification activities and the frequency with which they will be performed. Planned Responses to disruptions in water service - The plan identifies and includes recommended responses to disruption in water service at each of the areas identified in Table I. Disruptions in water service have been repeatedly associated with Legionella outbreaks. Water Treatment and Management Program The Water System Treatment Management program shall include the following elements: A site plan showing location of the equipment and possible sources of contamination Documentation that a plan relative to design, installation and start-up of the equipment has been developed. Equipment diagrams showing the locations of maintenance points and monitoring points for critical limits Written policies and procedures that include: A description of water treatment and management procedures that establish the treatment critical limits Treatment monitoring schedule o Maintenance schedule Frequency of tasks Corrective actions for deviations from the treatment critical limits Responsible persons A procedure to record and regularly review all Water System Treatment Management Program activities. ATTACHMENT TABLE 1 Estimated Annual Quantity of Environmental Water Tests FACILITY Frequency # Contractor Drawn Samples # VA Drawn Samples VA Drawn Resamples Total Number of Samples Building 1 Quarterly 20 0 80 Building 28 Quarterly 20 0 80 Building 29 Quarterly 20 0 80 Building 35 Quarterly 20 0 80 Cooling Tower Quarterly 1 0 4 Resamples if needed Quarterly 19 76 Total Samples 400
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/VA/VAAHCS/VAAHCS/36C25718Q0219/listing.html)
- Document(s)
- Attachment
- File Name: 36C25718Q0219 36C25718Q0219.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3946953&FileName=36C25718Q0219-000.docx)
- Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3946953&FileName=36C25718Q0219-000.docx
- Note: If links are broken, refer to Point of Contact above or contact the FBO Help Desk at 877-472-3779.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Department of Veterans Affairs;6010 Amarillo Blvd W;Amarillo Texas
- Zip Code: 79106
- Record
- SN04756867-W 20171207/171205231137-38e8a86f4f5157fa65c21a9874647830 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |