R--INTENT TO NEGOTIATE A SOLE SOURCE PROCUREMENTWITH DARTMOUTH COLLEGE (TRUSTEES OF DARTMOUTH)

The Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Medical Center, 215 North Main St., White River Junction, VT 05009-0001, intends to negotiate a sole source procurement for the administration of the VA Quality Scholars Program (VAQS) with Dartmouth College (Trustees of Dartmouth). Services shall include, but not be limited to: 1. Creation, continual improvement, and delivery of a two year curriculum on state of the art health care quality research and administration with new cohorts starting each year. 2. Planning, organizing, directing and furthering the operations of this program with regard to teaching curricular sessions, publicizing the program internal and external to VA, planning and coordinating the Summer Institute meeting, a meeting in conjunction with the VA Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) meeting, a meeting in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and mentoring Senior Scholars participating in this program. 3. Implementation and refining the academic standards established for the program, and evaluating them for their effectiveness. 4. All equipment, material, supplies, teachers, and services required to execute this program will be included in the cost of this contract. 5. Monitor and evaluate each of the six participating sites to ensure that academic standards are maintained. This announcement is not a request for competitive quotations. No solicitation document is available and telephone inquiries will not be honored; however, interested parties may submit literature detailing how their services meet the VA requirements to the Contracting Officer. Responses received on or before April 15, 2008 will be considered. A determination not to compete this proposed contract based on responses to this notice will be solely at the discretion of the government.