Delicate operation
(click to view full)

When you think of military healthcare, you might picture MASH doctors performing surgery on wounded soldiers. Or you might picture a US soldier injured by an IED being rehabilitated in a hospital state-side.

You probably don’t think of computers, networks and Web sites. But modern healthcare, whether military or civilian, depends on information technology for all of the advanced medical technology to work together seamlessly.

To procure military IT, the US Department of Defense developed a contract vehicle called the Defense Medical Information Systems/Systems Integration, Design, Development, Operations and Maintenance Services (D/SIDDOMS 3) contract. Just rolls off the tongue, don’t it.

While hardly Shakespeare, the contract vehicle enables US military services and the US Department of Veterans Affairs to buy medical IT equipment and services through task orders from a group of eager contractors operating under an $8 billion contract ceiling…

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Patient Monitoring System

GE Healthcare in Wauwatosa, WI won a maximum $43.2 million fixed price with economic price adjustment contract to supply patient monitoring systems to the US military as well as federal civilian agencies.

GE Healthcare received its 1st contracts to supply patient monitoring systems to the US military in March 2009, after 2 years of negotiations between the company and the US Defense Supply Center Philadelphia. GE received two 10-year contracts (1 year base with 9 one-year options), worth a maximum of $63 million annually, to supply patient monitoring systems as well as supporting communications equipment and IT systems…

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Hyperbaric Medicine Chamber
at Brooks City-Base, TX
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The US Air Force Research Laboratory awarded 6 contracts worth a combined $558 million for administrative and functional support, medical and biomedical research assistance, clinical and clinical hyperbaric medicine services, environmental bio-terrorism support, technology evaluation and research studies support services at Brooks City-Base, TX and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH.

Brooks City-Base is home to the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM), [pdf] which is a center for aerospace medical learning, consultation, aerospace medical investigations and aircrew health assessments. The school operates a hyperbaric medicine chamber, which exposes patients to large amounts of oxygen to enrich blood and increase the body’s ability to heal.

The winners of the medical research support contracts are:

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The Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Northwest awarded indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity multiple award design-build construction contracts to 6 small business qualifiers for US military construction projects in the Northwest United States. The maximum dollar value, including the base period and 4 option years, for all 6 contracts is $200 million.

The contractors will carry out new construction, renovation, alteration, demolition, and repair work through design-build or design-bid-build projects. The work will be performed at a broad range of sites, including commercial and institutional facilities, administrative and industrial facilities, housing facilities, child care centers, lodges, recreational/fitness centers, retail complexes, warehouses, offices, community centers, medical facilities, operational airfield facilities, hangars, armories, fire stations, auditoriums, religious facilities and manufacturing facilities.

The winners of the NAVFAC Northwest contracts are:

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Plans for Walter Reed
National Military Medical Ctr
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General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) in Fairfax, VA won a $322.1 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide initial outfitting and transition services at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD and the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital (FBCH) at Fort Belvoir, VA; both are new military facilities being built in the greater US National Capital Region (NCR).

GDIT will assist with hospital transitioning and activation, and install materiel, furniture, medical, non-medical, and IT equipment. The company will also provide operational and maintenance training on the equipment and will move and reuse existing equipment and materiel.

The new medical facilities are mandated by the Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) law, enacted to implement the 2005 BRAC Commission’s recommendations, to accommodate the closing of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.

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Flooding at Kessler AFB
from Hurricane Katrina
(click to view larger)

W.G. Yates & Sons Construction in Biloxi, MS won a $37.3 million firm-fixed-price contract for construction of a community hospital at Keesler Air Force Base, also in Biloxi.

Kessler AFB, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is the home of the 81st Training Wing – the electronics, computer and weather training center of the US Air Force. It is also home of Keesler Medical Center, the 2nd largest USAF medical facility.

Under the contract, W.G. Yates will build a 4-story, 141,000-square-foot medical facility…

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TransHospital, Afghanistan
(click to view full)

Shipping containers are ubiquitous in a globalized world, and many modes of transport on air, sea, and land are adapted to carry them easily. To portability, add protection: their rigid metal construction provides more shielding than tent fabric, and this can be augmented by digging the structure in slightly or putting up Hesco-type instafill walls nearby. A number of manufacturers have thrown in a 3rd advantage: modular flexibility, created by making it easy to connect containerized modules and deploy the exact combination you need.

Military and para-public medical facilities are natural fits with these advantages, and EADS’ innovative TransHospital leverages all of them. Now, the Thai government will become a customer, giving them a transportable field hospital for military or disaster-related use…

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International SOS Assistance in Trevose, PA won a fixed-price requirements contract to provide health care support services, dental care services and claims processing to the US Department of Defense TRICARE Overseas Program. The total potential contract value, including an approximately 10-month base period and 5 one-year option periods for health care delivery, plus a transition-out period, is estimated at $269.1 million.

The TRICARE Management Activity provides health care coverage to 9.4 million active duty military family members, military retirees and their eligible family members.

The new contract includes the establishment of host nation provider networks around military treatment facility (MTFs)...

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Coakley & Williams Construction in Gaithersburg, MD won a $42.9 million firm-fixed-price contract to design/build an Armed Forces Medical Examiner System Facility at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

The medical examiner facility is being moved from Rockville, MD to Dover, DE as a result of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) implementation [pdf]...

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Fort Benning’s New Hospital
Artist’s rendition
(click to view larger)

Turner Construction Co. in Huntsville, AL won [PDF] a $333.4 million firm-fixed-price contract to design and build a 745,000-square-foot hospital at Fort Benning, GA, almost 2 times the size of the current 393,000 square-foot facility.

With 70 in-patient beds, the new hospital will serve soldiers, military retirees, and families of the Fort Benning community. The design is split into 2 wings – a clinic and a hospital section, equipped with 2 parking decks for patients and staff members…

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