Mortara Instrument, Inc.

B-272461 Oct 18, 1996 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Is not an abuse of discretion where agency concluded that the requirements were technically complex and involved installation at more than 200 locations in the United States and overseas and only one small business firm responded to the draft solicitation and subsequent Commerce Business Daily notice. Protest that various requirements for a cardiology medical information system can only be met by incumbent contractor is denied where the solicitation did not specify a particular method for designing the system and offerors were free to choose any approach that could meet the challenged requirements. Contracting agency is not required to acquire and furnish to prospective offerors information concerning certain components of the system currently in use that is proprietary to the incumbent contractor where agency asserts it has no rights to the information. View Decision Matter of: Mortara Instrument, Inc. File: B-272461 Date: October 18, 1996 * Redacted Decision Contracting officer's decision to procure cardiology medical information system on an unrestricted basis, and not through a small business set-aside, is not an abuse of discretion where agency concluded that the requirements were technically complex and involved installation at more than 200 locations in the United States and overseas and only one small business firm responded to the draft solicitation and subsequent Commerce Business Daily notice. Protest that various requirements for a cardiology medical information system can only be met by incumbent contractor is denied where the solicitation did not specify a particular method for designing the system and offerors were free to choose any approach that could meet the challenged requirements. Contracting agency is not required to acquire and furnish to prospective offerors information concerning certain components of the system currently in use that is proprietary to the incumbent contractor where agency asserts it has no rights to the information, and protester has not shown otherwise. Attorneys DECISION Mortara Instrument, Inc. protests certain provisions in request for proposals (RFP) No. DAMD17-94-R-0052, issued by the Department of the Army, Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (AMRAA), seeking proposals to provide a cardiology medical information system (CMIS) to be used world-wide in military medical facilities. Mortara, a small business, raises numerous issues regarding provisions of the solicitation which it alleges favor the incumbent Marquette Electronics, Inc., [1] and alleges that the agency improperly permitted Marquette to gain an unfair competitive advantage in the procurement by virtue of its employment of a former government employee. We deny the protest. The objective of the CMIS procurement is to replace the Computer Assisted Processing of Cardiograms (CAPOC) system in use since 1979 with a computer-based CMIS network that can support the management of electrocardiogram (ECG) data acquired in military medical facilities located within the continental United States and locations overseas, [2] and to ensure access to cardiology medical information regardless of provider location. To that end, the proposed CMIS must permit the data acquisition, storage, and retrieval of cardiology medical information through various network hubs and be adaptable to future integration of other types of images and data from other cardiology procedure equipment. The acquisition includes the necessary and ongoing services for configuration planning, implementation assistance, common industry hardware, software and communication upgrades. Prior to initiating this procurement, the agency issued a draft RFP on June 22, 1994, soliciting industry comments on its CMIS requirements. Thereafter, on July 8, AMRAA published a notice in the Commerce Business Daily (CBD) announcing its intention to purchase a CMIS to replace the CAPOC system. On April 5, 1996, under full and open competitive procedures, AMRAA issued the RFP to 18 companies. The RFP, as amended, anticipates award of a firm, fixed-price requirements contract for 1 year with seven 1-year options to the offeror whose proposal represents the best value to the government, considering technical merit and price.