SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- MONAHRQ
- Notice Date
- 7/11/2011
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Contracts Management, 540 Gaither Road, Rockville, Maryland, 20850
- ZIP Code
- 20850
- Solicitation Number
- AHRQ-11-10015
- Archive Date
- 10/28/2011
- Point of Contact
- Gayle Sunde, Phone: 301-427-1573
- E-Mail Address
-
gayle.sunde@ahrq.hhs.gov
(gayle.sunde@ahrq.hhs.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code of the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. BACKGROUND: The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research was established in 1989. Its reauthorizing legislation (42 U.S.C. 299 et seq; "Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999") renamed it the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and established it as the lead Federal agency whose mission was to enhance the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of health services and access to such services for all Americans. AHRQ's mission is to produce "measurable improvements in health care in America, gauged in terms of improved quality of life and patient outcomes, lives saved, and value gained for what we spend." Under the Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999 (S 580), which reauthorized AHRQ, AHRQ's reauthorizing legislation stated that, "The Agency shall promote health care quality improvement by conducting and supporting- (1) research that develops and presents scientific evidence regarding all aspects of health care, including- (2) methods for measuring quality and strategies for improving quality; and (3) initiatives to advance private and public efforts to improve health care quality." (cite http://www.ahrq.gov/hrqa99a.htm) In 2010, AHRQ introduced MONAHRQ, a free desktop software tool that helps organizations quickly and easily turn healthcare data into a customizable, fully-functional reporting website. Designing and building an effective reporting site can be challenging, expensive, and time consuming. MONAHRQ makes this process easier, thus helping to encourage local healthcare quality measurement and reporting in support of Agency efforts such as greater transparency, comparative reporting, quality improvement, and payment initiatives. The MONAHRQ desktop application allows users to load local healthcare data or information, select data analysis and website customization options, process the data, and generate a full set of website files onto the local computer. Users must host the generated website themselves. A MONAHRQ-generated website can provide information on hospital quality, hospital utilization, potentially avoidable hospital stays, and county rates of hospital use. It targets a variety of audiences such as consumers, providers, and policy makers. It is designed to be easy to use and to follow best practices in public reporting. In the future, AHRQ intends to expand the MONAHRQ tool in ways that include: -- Reporting more types of measures. -- Supporting more reporting features. -- Offering more customization options. -- Increasing ease of use. -- Incorporating additional best practices in reporting, including knowledge generated through AHRQ's new initiative on Building the Science of Public Reporting. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is looking for firms that have the capability to redesign and expand the MONAHRQ software in support of Agency goals, to maintain and update the MONAHRQ software, to maintain and update the MONAHRQ download site and related materials, to provide technical assistance to MONAHRQ users, to support and implement strategic planning to improve the MONAHRQ project and to increase MONAHRQ adoption, and to help disseminate MONAHRQ to a broader audience. The initiative to conduct this effort is titled MONAHRQ - My Own Network, Powered by AHRQ. To achieve this, AHRQ will establish a single contract with a base year and four one-year option periods. PROJECT REQUIREMENTS: AHRQ is seeking qualified firms able to optimize their technical and management resources, creativity, and flexibility to achieve Agency goals. Qualified firms must demonstrate substantial experience with quality measurement and reporting and with developing and supporting healthcare-related software tools, databases, and websites. Other tasks will require contractors to manage and coordinate staff in support of MONAHRQ and MONAHRQ users. Organizations are encouraged to participate in this offering that work at the national, state, regional, local, or provider levels and who are engaged in developing, testing, implementing, disseminating, and supporting software tools and websites that help to promote, understand, monitor, or leverage quality measure data or performance in health care delivery. Minimum qualifications include: • A minimum of 5 years' experience working in health services research, particularly related to quality improvement and quality reporting. • Demonstrated evidence of a minimum of 5 years' experience in developing and supporting healthcare-related software tools, databases, and websites, or related experience. • Project leadership with advanced degrees such as an MD, PhD or MPH with a minimum of 3 years' experience in the development, implementation, testing, dissemination, and support of software tools and websites. • Corporate experience related in initiatives with evidence of knowledge, experience and infrastructure The capability statement should demonstrate the organization's ability to assist AHRQ in achieving the above stated goals. In particular, Sources must have an understanding of and/or experience in: • Understanding and applying state of the art practices in public reporting; • Understanding and coordinating with other local, state, federal, and industry measurement and reporting initiatives; • Conducting statistical analyses of healthcare data to measure quality, utilization, and/or costs; • Designing, developing, testing, and disseminating professional-quality software products, including designing and developing websites, user interfaces (desktop and web), databases, and systems architectures; • Conducting cognitive testing, usability studies, or similar; and/or applying the results of such testing and studies to software and website design; • Applying current best practices in software development lifecycle processes so as to reliably create products that meet or exceed requirements and are delivered on time and under budget; • Managing open source software projects; • Advanced programming in one or more upper-level languages such as Java, C#, and C++; • Providing direct technical support to users; • Conducting or supporting dissemination activities such as webinars, email lists, demonstrations, presentations, publications, and representation at conferences; • Writing user-friendly, technically accurate reports and documentation; • Managing subcontracts and consultants. Sources must possess, or be able to obtain (in-house or through subcontracting/consulting arrangements) the staff and other resources needed to expeditiously carry out the different types of activities listed above. ANTICIPATED PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: The anticipated period of performance is June 2012 through June 2013, with four (4) one-year options. CAPABILITY STATEMENT/INFORMATION SOUGHT: Interested SMALL BUSINESSES only should submit their capability statements electronically (no more than 5 pages in length) in Microsoft Word (MS) or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) to Gayle Sunde, Contract Specialist, by email at gayle.sunde@ahrq.hhs.gov, no later than 12pm (noon) EST on July 26, 2011. Any responses received after that date and time will not be considered. Generic capability statements will be considered non-responsive. Capability statements must be tailored to this request and identify the source's capabilities to complete this requirement including information on key staff experience and education, and a description of corporate experience with similar projects. DISCLAIMER AND IMPORTANT NOTES This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed. Information provided will be used to assess tradeoffs and alternatives available for the potential requirement and may lead to the development of a solicitation. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. Any solicitation resulting from the analysis of information obtained will be announced to the public in Federal Business Opportunities in accordance with the FAR Part 5. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).
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-
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