SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- Consultation Services
- Notice Date
- 9/11/2006
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 561110
— Office Administrative Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, Indian Health Service, Aberdeen Area Office, Federal Building, 115 4th Avenue SE, Aberdeen, SD, 57401
- ZIP Code
- 57401
- Solicitation Number
- RFQ-06-169
- Response Due
- 9/21/2006
- Archive Date
- 10/6/2006
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This procurement is being conducted under Simplified Acquisition procedures pursuant to the authority of FAR Subpart 13.5, Test Program for Certain Commercial Items (10 U.S.C. 2304(g) & 2305 & 41 U.S.C. 253(g) & 253a & 253b), FAR Part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items (Title VII of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-335)), FAR 37.104, and FAR Subpart 37.6, Acquisition. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; therefore, a written solicitation will not be issued. The Aberdeen Area Indian Health Service (IHS) intends to award a firm fixed-price, non-personal service, commercial item contract in response to Request for Quotation (RFQ) RFQ-06-169. The solicitation documents & incorporated provisions & clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-11. This solicitation is restricted to 100% Small Business concerns. The associated North American Industry Classification System code is 561110 and the small business size standard is $6.5 million. PRICE SCHEDULE: CONTRACT LINE ITEM NUMBER ONE: On-Site Consultation Services 525 hours @ $_____ per hour. CONTRACT LINE ITEM NUMBER TWO: Off-Site Consultation Services 120 hours @ $_____per hour. PURPOSE: The purpose of the contract is for the provision of consultation services to the AAIHS Office of Health Programs and service units in the Aberdeen Area. The Aberdeen Area requires contractor support in the provision of quality assurance, performance improvement, risk management, quality of care surveys for dental programs, and hospital and health center accreditation consultation services to assist various service unit hospitals and health centers in meeting medical care evaluation/performance improvement program standards. Consultation services shall follow rules, regulations, and policies prescribed by regulatory agencies and bodies such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Care (AAAHC), Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), Department of Health and Human Services, I.H.S. Headquarters, and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The contractor shall furnish the necessary personnel, supplies, materials, and equipment to provide consultation services to various area office and service unit activities to address JCAHO, CMS, I.H.S., and other regulatory requirements and standards. The AAIHS requires the consultation services continue without interruption during the term of this contract. GOVERNMENT FURNISHED PROPERTY, FACILITIES, AND SERVICES: When the Contractor is in the Aberdeen Area Office or service unit location, the Indian Health Service shall provide office space, I.H.S. network access, Internet access, access to I.H.S. medical and clinical data, provider credential files, office and other equipment and supplies necessary for the Contractor to carry out the responsibilities of the contract. The IHS shall provide administrative and professional ancillary personnel deemed necessary to support the Contractor. These services shall be available eight (8) hours per workday Monday through Friday with the exception of Federal Holidays. CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBLITIES: The Contractor shall assist the Office of Health Programs (OHP) through the provision of quality assurance, performance improvement, risk management, credentialing, quality of care survey, and hospital and health center accreditation or certification services. Additionally, the Contractor shall assist with service unit governing body activities and as appropriate, attending annual service unit governing body meetings and maintaining records or documents important to the service unit governing body. The contractor shall serve as a team member in the Area OHP with the primary responsibility of assisting the Aberdeen Area Office efforts and activities to assist service unit governing body committees in meeting with appropriate JCAHO, CMS, and I.H.S. requirements and standards. As appropriate, the Contractor shall evaluate and monitor performance and quality improvement programs at all Aberdeen Area service unit locations. Principal duties of the consultant shall include: The consultant shall serve as an advisor to the Area Director, Deputy Area Director, and Chief Medical Officer on performance and quality improvement issues for both the direct and contract health programs. The consultant shall participate in the formulation, review, and recommendations of the Aberdeen Area medical care evaluation policies and procedures. The consultant shall participate in accreditation activities for service units, including JCAHO, CMS, AAHC, and CARF pre-survey and post-survey activities. The consultant shall review survey findings distributed to hospital and health center governing bodies. The consultant shall assist in the development of policies and procedures for credentialing and privileging, performance improvement, patient safety, medication error reporting, and human resources annual report to the governing bodies. The consultant shall provide coordination to the service unit governing body and if appropriate, attend annual service unit governing body meetings and provide problem solving services. As appropriate the consultant shall assist with the review and revision of the governing body bylaws, medical staff bylaws, facility bylaws, performance improvement plans, and patient safety initiatives. The consultant shall assist in maintaining repositories of records important to the governing body for each service unit including pre-surveys, survey, accreditation reports and correspondence, quarterly and annual reports, plans and bylaws. The contractor shall be consulted on documents prior to signature by the chair of the governing body. The consultant shall evaluate the quality of area dental program services to determine the adequacy of equipment, personnel, and working accommodations though on-site inspections and /or review of a variety of reports. The Consultant shall assess dental needs and explore sources and methods of obtaining necessary resources. The consultant shall assess compliance with quality improvement programs, safety standards, dental radiology, accreditation requirements, infection control guidelines and standards, and IHS policies and procedures. The consultant shall evaluate service unit?s dental program quality control / performance improvement programs mandated by the JCAHO. The contractor shall provide peer review and utilization review data when requested by the service unit dental programs. The consultant shall assist service unit programs in the development of a plan of correction to eliminate deficiencies noted during reviews. As appropriate, the contractor shall participate in a schedule of service unit site visits in coordination with other OHP team members. The consultant shall provide consultation and assistance to hospital and health center quality improvement programs and administrative staff concerning identified deficiencies and other related problems to the accreditation and certification process. Upon the completion of a service unit site visit, the consultant shall provide the service unit visited with organizational quality improvement recommendations. The consultant shall coordinate activities with those of other AAIHS consultants from other hospital and clinic disciplines to develop the quality improvement recommendations to improve organizational performance. The consultant shall provide consultation and serve as a liaison to service improving organizational performance (IOP) and performance improvement (PI) coordinators. Consultation services shall also be provided to clinical directors and service unit directors on an as needed basis. Sample documents developed by the consultants shall be available to Aberdeen Area service units on the AAIHS website. The consultant shall provide guidance to hospitals and clinics on risk management strategies and activities. The consultant shall assist with cases involving professional review actions, advises governing body and service unit regarding programs and actions to protect human and financial resources. The consultant shall seek counsel on medico-legal matters from the Regional Attorney?s Office and requests written legal opinions when appropriate. The consultant shall be familiar with internet and resource library materials on performance improvement, environment of care, risk management, quality of care, credentialing, certification, and accreditation. The consultant may be required to accompany OHP staff to service unit locations via a government owned vehicle (GOV). The consultant may complete work assignments outside of the Aberdeen Area Office. To complete outside work assignments, the consultant shall be permitted to remove official files and documents from the Aberdeen Area Office. SPECIFIC CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILIES: The contractor shall work on special projects assigned by the AAIHS Chief Medical Officer. The contractor shall provide consultation services in the Aberdeen Area Office and may be required to make site visits to various hospital and health centers in the Aberdeen Area IHS . The eight hospitals are located in Belcourt and Fort Yates, North Dakota; Eagle Butte, Pine Ridge, Rapid City, Rosebud, and Sisseton, South Dakota; and Winnebago, Nebraska. The eleven (11) I.H.S. and tribal health centers are located in Fort Totten, New Town, and Trenton, North Dakota; Fort Thompson, Kyle, Lower Brule, McLaughlin, Wagner, and Wanblee, South Dakota; Macy, Nebraska, and Tama, Iowa. Visits to tribal and urban Indian health sites shall be scheduled as appropriate. The contractor shall submit a six-month site visit schedule to the Aberdeen Area IHS for review at the time of contract award. A second six-month site visit schedule shall be submitted prior to the beginning of the final six-month period. The contractor shall be required to possess familiarity with current accreditation, certification, and regulatory requirements and standards for: JCAHO-Joint Commission on Accreditation for Healthcare Organizations CMS-Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services EMTALA-Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act AAAHC-Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care CARF-Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities COLA-Laboratory Accreditation Program HIPAA-Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act CAH-Critical Access Hospital designation status requirements. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS: Upon completion of each site visit, the contractor shall submit an assessment report on quality improvement program activities taking place in facilities in the Aberdeen Area. Special emphasis shall be placed on compliance with JCAHO, CMS, IHS, accreditation requirements and standards, and other IHS policies and procedures. The contractor shall submit a quarterly report outlining activities taking place during the previous three-month period and resulting benefits to the IHS. At the end of the contract term, the contractor shall submit a report on all significant findings, conclusions, and recommendations. NON-PERSONAL SERVICES: This contract is a non-personal service health care service contract as defined in FAR 37.101 under which the contractor is an independent contractor. The consultant services of the contract will be evaluated by the Government through the use of site visits and reporting requirements, however, the Government retains no control over the professional aspects of the services provided. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: The period of performance will be from September 25, 2006 through September 24, 2007. CONTRACTING OFFICER AUTHORITY: Authority to negotiate changes in the terms, conditions or amounts cited in this contract is reserved for the Contracting Officer. INVOICE SUBMISSION & PAYMENT: The contractor shall submit its invoice to the Project Officer at the Aberdeen Area Indian Health Service, 115 4th Ave SE, Room 309 Federal Building, Aberdeen, South Dakota 57401. The contractor agrees to include the following information on each invoice: (1) Contractors name and address; (2) Contract number; (3) Invoice number and date; (4) cost or price; (5) Dates of service including the number or hours worked; and (6) Remit to address. Payment shall be made by the Aberdeen Area Financial Management Branch, 115 4th Ave SE, Room 309 Federal Building, Aberdeen, South Dakota 57401. SPECIAL CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS: Contractors cannot serve as expert witness in any suit against the Federal Government. Many of the I.H.S. patients receiving may only speak a native language and/or reside on a Native American Reservation, therefore, the contractor must demonstrate sensitivity to cross-cultural and language differences. The Privacy Act of 1974 mandates that the contractor maintain complete confidentiality of all administrative, medical, and personnel records, and all other pertinent information that comes to his/her attention or knowledge. The Privacy Act carries both civil and criminal penalties for unlawful disclosure of records. Violation of such confidentiality shall be cause for adverse action. The I.H.S. shall provide training on the Freedom of Information Act & the Privacy Act. All I.H.S. regulations and policies applicable to these Acts shall be enforced. The contractor shall comply with I.H.S. facility infection control & safety procedures, practices, & standards. PROVISIONS & CLAUSES: The following provisions and clauses apply to this acquisition. The FAR provision 52.212.1 Instructions to Offeror?s Commercial Items; and 52.212.-3 Offeror Representations and Certifications Commercial Items are incorporated by reference. The provision at 52.212.2 applies to the acquisition and is provided in full test. FAR 52.212-2 EVALUATION? COMMERICAL ITEMS (JAN 1999): (a) The government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers: (1) TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES = 50 POINTS AVAILABLE: The technical capabilities evaluation factor will assess the depth and breadth of the offeror?s experience in providing quality assurance, performance improvement, risk management, quality of care surveys for dental programs and hospital and health center accreditation consultation services to assist various service unit hospitals and health centers in meeting medical care evaluation/performance improvement program standards. The technical proposal shall indicate how the consultation services are compliant with rules, regulations, and policies prescribed by regulatory agencies and bodies such as the JCAHO, Department of Health and Human Services, I.H.S. Headquarters, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In assessing the offeror?s technical capabilities, the proposal will be judged solely on the written material provided by the offeror. To assist in the evaluation of the technical capabilities criteria, the offeror shall provide a staffing plan to assure the availability of qualified and experience staff capable of meeting statement of work requirements during the contract performance period. The offeror shall document that they have the necessary technical capacity to complete staffing requirements in a timely, comprehensive, and successful manner. (2) PAST PERFORMANCE AND EXPERIENCE = 50 POINTS AVAILABLE: The Past Performance and Experience evaluation factor will assess the relevance and breadth of the offeror?s experience and the quality of the offeror?s past performance on contract work consistent in scope and complexity with the 2007 Performance Improvement Services project. Past Performance and experience will be assessed on task orders or contracts completed during the past three years and all task orders currently in progress which are consistent in scope and complexity with the 2007 Performance Improvement Services project. The offeror?s technical proposal shall include a listing of previous or existing task orders, purchase orders, or contracts awarded to the offeror in other rural or Indian Health Service facilities. Orders must similar in scope and complexity as the requirements outlined in the statement of work. The offeror must include the following information for each task order, purchase order, or contract: 1. Name of task ordering activity and ordering officer 2. Order number 3. Order type 4. Total order value 5. Description of work 6. If appropriate, list of the Indian Health Service project officer and telephone number The offeror must demonstrate its record of successful performance in past rural or IHS contract assignments. Each offeror will be evaluated on its performance under existing and prior task orders, purchase orders, and contracts for similar services. The offeror shall include the following past performance information: 1. Identify the one order that you consider to be the most successful and the reasons for this determination. 2. Evidence of timely and acceptable performance on projects of similar size and complexity. 3. Evidence indicating customer satisfaction for similar services outlined in the statement of work. 4. Evidence of concern for cost control and budgetary considerations. The IHS will make a separate determination of price reasonableness. An unrealistic price proposal may be the evidence of the offeror?s lack of understanding or poor understanding of the project. The primary consideration in evaluating this criterion shall be which offeror can perform the task order in a manner most advantageous to the Aberdeen Area as determined by the evaluation of proposals according to established evaluation criteria. Under best value principles, there are no requirements that a task order be awarded on the basis of lowest proposed cost. The award of a task order primarily on the basis of estimated costs may encourage the submission of unrealistically low estimates and increase the likelihood of cost overruns. Estimated costs must be reasonable for the tasks to be performed and if consideration is narrowed to choosing among proposals with approximately equal technical criteria as determined by the technical evaluation, cost information can become the determining criteria. The offeror must demonstrate its record of successful performance in past contracts and/or jobs, Government and/or commercial. Each offeror will be evaluated on its performance under existing and prior contracts/jobs. The offeror must list at least three contract/jobs and include the following information. (1) Name of Government agency/company; (2) Contract number, if applicable; (3) Dates of service/employment; (4) Total contract value/hourly wage; (5) Description of contract work/job duties; (6) Contracting Officer/Company Manager and telephone number; (7) Program Manager and telephone number, if applicable. Technical and past performance when combined, are considered approximately equal to cost or price. (b) Options. The Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s). (c) A written notice of award or acceptance of an offer mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful offeror within the time for acceptance specified in the offer, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the offer?s specified expiration time, the Government may accept an offer (or part of an offer), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award The following FAR and Health & Human Services Acquisition Regulation (HHSAR) clauses are applicable: 52.204-4, 52.204-7, 52.204-9, 52.212-4, 52.212-5 with Alternate I, 52.217-8, 52.21709, 52.223-5, 52.223-6, 52.224-1, 52.224-2, 52.229-3, 52.232-18, 52.233-4, 52.237-2, 52.237-3, 52.239-1, 52.242-15, 52.242-17, 52.243-1, 52.245-1, 52.245-1, 52.249-2, 52.249-8, 352-202-1, 352-215-1, 352.215-70, 352.223-70, 352.232-9, 352-270-2, 352.270-3, 352.270-4, 352.270-6, & 352.270-7. The following FAR clauses cited in 52.212-5 are applicable to the acquisition: 52.204-6 with Alternate I 52.222-3, 52.222-21, 52.222-26, 52.222.35, 52.222-36, 52.222-37, 52.222-39, 52.225-13, & 52.232-33. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will provide full text copies of the FAR & HHSAR provisions & clauses. The provision & clauses may also be accessed electronically at http://acquisition.gov/far/indiex.html & http://www.hhs.gov/oamp/dap/hhsar.html. CONTRACTORS INTENDING TO CONDUCT BUSINESS WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MUST REGISTER WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CENTRAL CONTRACTOR REGISTRATION (CCR) DATABASE VIA THE INTERNET AT HTTP://CCR.GOV OR BY CALLING (888) 227-2423. PROPOSAL SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: The contractor shall submit a written response to, the technical evaluation factors in FAR 52.212-2. In addition, the contractor shall submit a completed copy of FAR 52.212-3 with its offer. All responsible offeror?s may submit a proposal, which shall be considered by the Agency. Offers shall be submitted to the Aberdeen Area Indian Health Service, 115 4th Ave SE, Room 309, Federal Building, Aberdeen, South Dakota 57401, no later than 3:00 p.m. CST on September 21, 2006. The offer must be submitted in a sealed envelope, addressed to this office, showing the time specified for receipt, the solicitation number, and your name and address. Offers will also be accepted by e-mail at Danielle.chasinghawk@ihs.gov or by fax at (605) 226-7669. ACCEPTANCE PERIOD: Your proposal must stipulate that it is predicated upon all the terms and conditions of this RFQ. In addition, it must contain a statement to the effect that it is firm for a period of at least sixty (60) days from the date of this receipt.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Aberdeen Area Indian Health Service, 115 4th Ave SE Federal Building Room 309, Aberdeen, South Dakota
- Zip Code: 57401
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Zip Code: 57401
- Record
- SN01139276-W 20060913/060911220302 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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