NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE – SURGICAL SCIENCE

This acquisition is for a sole source firm-fixed-price service agreement to Surgical Science (Surgical Science North America / Surgical Science Inc.) for maintenance and support of the CCMPB bronchoscopy simulator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center (CC) Critical Care Medicine and Pulmonary Branch (CCMPB).

•             Product Service Code: 6515 – Medical Instruments, Equipment, and Supplies

•             NAICS Code: 339112 – Surgical and Medical Instrument Manufacturing

•             Place of Performance: Bethesda, MD 20892 USA

POTS: 26-005549

Description:

This is a notice of intent, not a request for a quotation.  A solicitation document will not be issued and quotations will not be requested.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to award a fixed price purchase order to Surgical Science North America Corporation, located at 23500 Mercantile Rd. STE F, Beachwood, OH 44122, on a firm fixed price sole source award basis to provide the service agreement to the National Institutes of Health.

The bronchoscopy simulator is proprietary equipment manufactured by Surgical Science. Surgical Science is the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and the only authorized source capable of providing certified preventive and corrective maintenance, proprietary replacement parts, access to embedded diagnostic tools, software patches, upgrades, simulation module updates, and firmware updates and system recalibration.

The system contains proprietary software and hardware architecture that is not accessible to third-party vendors. To our knowledge, no third-party service providers are authorized or certified by Surgical Science to perform maintenance or repairs on this system. Use of a non-authorized vendor would void manufacturer warranty protections, risk improper calibration and degraded simulation accuracy, compromise training fidelity and reliability, and increase risk of extended equipment downtime.

Because CCMPB relies on the simulator for structured fellow training and attending physician skill maintenance, accurate simulation performance and uninterrupted availability are essential. Accordingly, Surgical Science is the only responsible source capable of meeting NIH’s minimum requirements.

This acquisition is being conducted using policies unique to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13 – Simplified Acquisition Procedures, Subpart 13.106-1(b)(1), For purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold (SAT), contracting officers may solicit from one source if the contracting officer determines that the circumstance of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available.  Contracts awarded using FAR Part 13-Simplified Acquisition Procedures are exempt from the requirements of FAR Part 6-Competition Requirements.

Interested parties may identify their interest and capabilities in response to this posting. The determination by the Government not to compete the proposed requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.

Comments to this announcement, referencing this posting number, may be submitted to the NIH, Clinical Center, Office of Purchasing and Contracts, prior to the closing date specified in this announcement, to the attention of Kristin Nagashima, Contract Specialist via email to Kristin.nagashima@nih.gov by May 18, 2026 at 2pm EST.