Request for Proposal
OMB 0990-0115
Contents
PART
I
Section A: Solicitation
Section B: Supplies
or Services & Prices/Costs
Section C: Description/Specification/Work
Statement
Section D: Packaging
and Marking
Section E: Inspection
and Acceptance
Section F: Period
of Performance/Delivery Schedule
Section G: Contract
Administration Data
Section H: Special
Contract Requirements
PART
II
Section I. Contract
Clauses
PART
III
Section J: List
of Attachments
PART
IV
Section K: Representations
and Instructions
Section L: Instructions,
Conditions & Notices to Offerors
Section M: Evaluation
Factors for Award
Attachments
1. Past
Performance Questionnaire and Contractor Performance Form
2. Proposal Intent Response
Sheet
PART I—THE SCHEDULE
Request
for Proposal No. AHRQ-2008-10036
SECTION A—SOLICITATION FORM
Date Issued: July 29, 2008
Date Questions Due: August 11, 2008
Date Notice of Intent Due: August 15, 2008
Date Proposals Due: August 29, 2008 12:00 PM EDT
You are
invited to submit a proposal to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ) for Request for Proposal (RFP) No. AHRQ-08-10036, entitled "Incorporating
Health Information Technology Into Workflow Redesign". Your proposal must be
developed and submitted in accordance with the requirements and instructions of
this RFP.
The
Government anticipates awarding one (1) contract from this solicitation with the
contract estimated to have a maximum budget of $500,000. A firm fixed price contract
is contemplated for a 12 month period of performance. Please go to Section L.10
Technical Proposal Instructions for further information. The North American
Industry Classification System (NAICS) code that best describes the requirement
is 541611. The small business size standard is $6.5 million (provided for
information only, this procurement is advertised on a full
and open competition basis).
Offerors
shall submit the following:
A. Technical
Proposal (Go to Section L.10) (Original, 10 copies, 1 electronic copy)
B. Past
Performance Information (Go to Section L.11) (Original and 3 copies)
C. Business
Proposal (Go to Section L.13) (Original and 3 copies, 1 electronic copy)
Your
technical proposal must be concisely written and should be limited to
50 typewritten pages (double-spaced, single sided), exclusive of cover
page, table of contents, bibliography, personnel qualifications (i.e., resume,
etc., see Section L.10 for additional details). Your appendices are limited
to 50 pages (single sided) including all resumes, bibliographies, exhibits
and attachments. This limitation is for administrative purposes only and
exceeding the limitation shall not, of itself, be considered a basis for
rejection of your proposal.
Your
proposal must provide the full name of your organization, the address,
including county, Tax Identification Number (TIN), DUN and Bradstreet No., and
if different, the address to which payment should be mailed.
YOUR ATTENTION IS CALLED TO THE LATE PROPOSAL PROVISIONS PROVIDED
IN SECTION L.3 OF THIS RFP. YOUR ATTENTION IS ALSO DIRECTED TO THE TECHNICAL
PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS PROVIDED IN SECTION L.10 OF THE SOLICITATION.
If you
intend to submit a proposal in response to this solicitation, please inform the
Contract Specialist of your intent by completing the Proposal Intent Response Form
(attached) and submit the form no later than August 15, 2008. Please fax it to
301-427-1740, Attention: Linda Simpson, Contract Specialist, or
E-mail to: Linda.Simpson@ahrq.hhs.gov.
Questions
regarding this solicitation shall be received in this office no later than August
11, 2008. (Go to Section L.7). All
questions shall be submitted electronically by E-mail to the Contract
Specialist, at the following E-mail address: Linda.Simpson@ahrq.hhs.gov.
The subject line should be marked "Proposal
Questions RFP No. AHRQ-08-10036"
Answers
to questions will be provided in the form of an Amendment to this solicitation
and will be posted on AHRQ's Web page: http://www.ahrq.gov/fund/contraix.htm and the Federal Business Opportunities Web page: www.fedbizopps.gov. It is your responsibility to monitor the Web sites
where the RFP will be posted to learn about any amendments to the solicitation.
Discussions
with any other individual outside the Division of Contracts Management, may
result in rejection of the potential offeror's proposal.
The
proposal shall be signed by an authorized official to bind your organization
and must be received in our Contracts Office no later than 12 noon, EST, on August 29, 2008. Your proposal must be mailed to the following
address:
Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality
Division
of Contracts Management
540 Gaither Road, Room 4315
Rockville, Maryland 20850
Hand
carried proposals may be dropped off at the above location. However, please
allow ample time as proposals cannot be accepted until they have gone through
security. We will not be held responsible for any delays that may be incurred
getting your proposal through security.
NOTE: The
U.S. Postal Service's "Express Mail" does not deliver to our Rockville, Maryland address. Packages delivered via this service will be held at a local
post office for pick-up. The Government will not be responsible for picking
up any mail at a local post office. If a proposal is not received at the
place, date, and time specified herein, it will be considered a "late
proposal."
The RFP
does not commit the Government to pay any cost for the preparation and
submission of a proposal. It is also brought to your attention that the
Contracting Officer is the only individual who can legally commit the
Government to the expenditure of public funds in connection with the proposed
acquisition.
In
accordance with Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2001-16, all contractors
must be registered in the central contractor registration (CCR) database in
order to conduct business with the government [Go to Section I—FAR clause
52.204-7 Central Contractor Registration (OCT 2003), Alternate 1 (Oct 2003)]. As stated in paragraph (h) of this clause, additional information can
be obtained at http://www.ccr.gov or by
calling 1-888-227-2423, or 269-961-5757.
Requests
for any information concerning this RFP should be referred to the Contract
Specialist at Linda.Simpson@ahrq.hhs.gov.
Please note E-mail requests should state subject as RFP AHRQ-08-10036.
Return to Contents
SECTION B—SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND
PRICES/COSTS
B.1 BRIEF
DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES OR SERVICES
The Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) will award a contract to develop a practical and easy to
use toolkit on workflow analysis and redesign that can be used by both small
and large practices as well as other ambulatory settings in the selection and
implementation of health information technology (IT) to support practice design
entitled "Incorporating Health IT into Workflow Redesign."
Go to Section C for a
complete description
B.2 FIRM
FIXED PRICE
1. For this Firm Fixed Price contract, the Contractor
may bill in accordance with the payment schedule set forth herein.
2. Total funds currently available for the base
period are: __________________.
3. This contract is for period as set forth below:
The Government anticipates the period of performance shall
begin on or about September 30, 2008 and run through September 29, 2010.*
*Actual Dates To Be Inserted At Award.
Return to Contents
SECTION C—DESCRIPTION/SPECIFICATIONS/WORK STATEMENT
Statement of Work
Independently
and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall furnish all the
necessary services, qualified personnel, material, equipment, and facilities,
not otherwise provided by the Government as needed to perform the Statement of
Work below:
A.
Overview
A contract is being solicited to address how redesign of
clinician workflow can be supported by health IT. Specifically this contract
will develop a practical and easy to use toolkit on workflow analysis and
redesign that can be used by both small and large practices as well as other
ambulatory settings in the selection and implementation of health IT to support
practice redesign. This contract will leverage currently existing guides such
as the work of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Quality
Improvement Organization (QIO) Program Doctor's Office Quality Information
Technology (DOQ-IT), California Healthcare Foundation and the World Health
Organization and enhance it with other work in the areas of workflow, task
analysis, and health IT by AHRQ grantees, other researchers, and the National
Resource Center for Health IT.
Independently and not as an agent of the Government, the
Contractor and its subcontractors shall furnish all the necessary services,
qualified personnel, material, equipment, and facilities, not otherwise
provided by the Government as needed to perform the specific requirements
below.
-
Conduct a
literature and environmental scan of current practice redesign efforts that use
health IT as a tool, health IT impact on clinical workflow, and available
workflow analysis and redesign methods and tools.
-
Draft a federal
request for information (RFI) to be issued by AHRQ to obtain information
regarding currently developed methods and tools or initiatives focusing on
workflow analysis and redesign and how health IT can support workflow redesign .
-
Synthesize
responses to RFI.
-
Develop a
summary report that combines findings from the literature review, environmental
scan, and RFI.
-
Develop a
toolkit on workflow analysis and redesign that provides a description of
available tools and methods and a decision framework on how to determine when
health IT can be used as part of practice redesign.
-
User test the
toolkit and modify as needed.
-
Disseminate the
toolkit to professional societies and other relevant stakeholders.
The product of this contract will be a summary report
synthesizing the information from the literature review, environmental scan, request
for information (RFI) and a toolkit. The final report will also identify gaps
in the field and make recommendations regarding future AHRQ research in this
area.
B. Objectives
The purpose
of this contract is to develop a toolkit that teams can use to easily asses
their practice's or setting's workflow to determine when and how health IT may
be used in larger practice redesign efforts by:
- Assessing
existing research and evidence in the area of the impacts of health IT on
workflow, its linkage to clinician adoption, and its links to the safety,
quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of care delivery.
- Identifying
currently available resources for workflow assessment in healthcare as
well as proven workflow analysis methods and instruments used in the field
of human factors and ergonomics that could be applied in healthcare
settings.
- Synthesizing
the information gained into a toolkit that summarizes commonly used
methods for workflow assessment, explains the purpose of each method,
describes how to implement them as well as resources needed to do so,
explains the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, cites
available resources for more in-depth information on each tool, and
provides a decision guide for how and when health IT can be used in
practice redesign efforts.
C. Tasks to be Performed
-
Kick-Off Call
Participate in a
conference call with the Project Officer (PO) and other appropriate AHRQ staff
to discuss the overall objectives and specific elements of work to be performed.
Contact information for participants beyond those listed in this solicitation
will be provided from the AHRQ PO to the contractor, who will schedule and host
the call. The contractor will provide an electronic summary of the discussion
to everyone who participated in the call.
-
Develop Work
Plan
Submit a
comprehensive work plan to the PO. The work plan shall include the following
elements:
-
Key contact
information.
-
Brief background
on the topic.
-
Plan describing
the proposed approach and methodology for conducting the literature review,
environmental scan, drafting a Request for Information and synthesizing the
results and delivering the Summary Report.
-
Plan to
synthesize the information into a Summary Report and toolkit.
-
Also,
the contractor shall deliver to the PO an electronic project plan including
deliverables, tasks and schedule and provide updates for the completion of the
project, using Microsoft Office Project (version 2003). The electronic plan
should include a work breakdown structure (WBS) with a minimum of 3 levels of
detail with unique numbering, deliverables, milestones, and Gantt chart. Also,
the contractor shall deliver to the PO a hierarchical-type Project
Organizational Chart and a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM). Document the proposed timeline
using actual dates for the delivery schedule rather than days from effective
date of contract (EDOC).
-
First Required
TEP Call
In consultation
with the Project Officer, identify a small number of individuals (6-8)
including workflow redesign experts (e.g., human factors and industrial
engineers, such as from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society or Institute
of Industrial Engineers Society for Health System members, or the TransforMED
project), ambulatory clinical workflow experts (e.g. practice managers,
clinicians, architects and relevant organizations such as IHI or MGMA), health
IT experts (e.g. vendors, researchers, implementers), and other content and
methods experts. These individuals will comprise a Technical Expert Panel (TEP)
with which the contractor will consult, as appropriate, in conducting the
literature review and environmental scan and developing and testing the
toolkit. Submit the names, CV's, and completed disclosure of interest forms for
proposed technical experts to the PO for approval. Once TEP members are
approved, the contractor will arrange an initial TEP conference call to discuss
approaches to the literature search and toolkit development. An electronic
summary of the call shall be distributed to all participants.
-
Revised Work
Plan
Following the
initial TEP conference call, submit a comprehensive project and work plan
highlighting any changes from the initial draft work plan regarding proposed
literature search and review, environmental scan, toolkit development, etc.
-
Compliance with
the Paperwork Reduction Act
User testing (as
described under Task 15) may fall under the governance of the Paperwork
Reduction Act, depending on the size and scope of the work. If this is the
case, the contractor shall work with the AHRQ PO and the AHRQ OMB compliance
officer (Doris C. Lefkowitz) to prepare a package for submission to the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB). It will be the contractor's responsibility to
prepare the package, including an estimation of the number of participants,
discussion guide questions, and estimated burden.
It is estimated
this will require 4-5 full days of a Master level effort to prepare the
package. It will be the responsibility of the AHRQ PO to submit the package to
the AHRQ OMB compliance officer and coordinate any follow-up discussion. If
revisions are requested, the contractor shall provide these in a timely
fashion.
-
Bi-Monthly
Conference Calls and Status Reports
Participate in a
bi-monthly conference call with the PO to summarize progress. Calls may be
scheduled more or less frequently, as requested by the PO. Participation
includes scheduling the call in advance and circulating an agenda at least two working days prior to the call. The PO may request that
the agenda include attachments of working documents, such as reference lists,
literature retrieval figures, draft summary tables, etc. Within one week after
the call, submit an electronic summary of the call, which will serve as a
status report. Submit via E-mail to the PO and the CO. This report must also
document (even if not discussed during the call):
-
Progress during
the prior period in completing tasks.
-
Any problems or
major issues encountered, how they came to be and how they were addressed.
Major issues include those that involve changes in scope of work, timeline,
outcomes, inclusion/exclusion criteria, resources, or cost.
-
Any foreseeable
problems and plans to eliminate or mitigate those problems.
-
Any expected
change to the delivery schedule and budget, including rationale.
-
An updated Gantt
chart using tracking Gantt feature.
-
Literature
Review and Environmental Scan
The
contractor shall conduct a literature review and environmental scan on:
-
Workflow issues
encountered in the development, implementation, adoption and use of health IT and
methodology currently being utilized in health IT for workflow assessment and
redesign.
-
Applicable
peer-reviewed and gray-literature research, tools and methods available for
workflow analysis and redesign (in healthcare and other industries, where applicable).
-
Publicly
available workflow design tools and methods applicable to ambulatory practice
workflow analysis and redesign or related initiatives.
-
Request for
Information
The
contractor will draft a Request for Information (RFI) for AHRQ to disseminate
asking for relevant parties to submit information regarding currently developed
methods and tools or initiatives for ambulatory workflow analysis and redesign
and how health IT can support workflow redesign. The contractor shall synthesize
all submissions to the RFI and use them in the toolkit development.
-
Second Required
TEP Call
After reviewing
the literature and learning what is available to address and inform toolkit
development, convene another TEP conference call to discuss any further
refinement of toolkit development. This is the second required TEP call, but
additional calls are often useful and held at the discretion of the contractor
or as requested by the PO.
- Peer Reviewers
In addition to
the experts identified for the TEP and to ensure opportunity to receive input
from the range of clinical and professional interests in the topic, identify
individuals who may serve as peer reviewers of the draft summary report,
including appropriate Federal agencies. Submit the names and professional affiliations
of these individuals to the PO. AHRQ also may provide names of individuals or
organizations to be peer reviewers.
The contractor shall
send the report directly to reviewers as a hard copy (electronic copies should
not be provided to peer reviewers, unless as requested by them). To be
considered for the peer review task, the individuals must commit to reviewing
the draft report and providing written comments within a very circumscribed
time frame.
- Draft Summary Report for Peer Review
Prepare the draft
summary report and appendices. The draft summary report is expected to be
complete and of the same quality as a final report so that the peer review
process can function effectively. A draft Summary Report that is not complete
and/or which does not follow AHRQ's format will be returned as incomplete. The
Summary Report shall include:
-
An executive
summary.
-
A background
section on workflow issues encountered in the development, implementation,
adoption and use of health IT, any studies that use health IT as part of
practice redesign, and methodology currently being utilized in health IT for
workflow assessment and redesign.
-
A summary of the
literature review of applicable peer-reviewed and gray-literature research and
methods available for workflow analysis and redesign (in healthcare and other
industries, where applicable).
-
An assessment of
the state of the field, as evaluated through the literature review and
environmental scan, in workflow redesign as part of ambulatory practice
redesign and how health IT is being used for practice redesign.
-
A description of
the methodology used in the literature review, environmental scan, and
background report.
-
A description of
the TEP and how it was used.
-
List of existing
tools found through the literature review, environmental scan, and RFI with
descriptive information.
-
Identification
of gaps in knowledge.
-
An annotated
list of references (both included and excluded in/from the report).
The report is to
be concise and written in sufficient detail and clarity for key health IT and
workflow stakeholders to understand. Reports should follow AHRQ's current
required format. Questions about any part of the AHRQ Style Guidelines should
be directed to the Julius Patterson (301-427-1896 or julius.patterson@ahrq.hhs.gov).
Submit the draft
report for peer review to the PO and the Peer Reviewers as identified above.
- Reviewer Comments and Disposition of
Comments
Review and
analyze peer reviewers' comments and revise the draft summary report as
appropriate. Once all comments have been received for the draft report, the
contractor should schedule a conference call with the PO to discuss the general
tenor of the comments and review the plan for disposition of the comments, including
how disparate comments will be handled. Document the process for reviewing and
analyzing peer review comments, including a detailed description of the
disposition of all comments. Submit one (1) complete copy of each reviewer's
comments to the PO, and submit a report of the disposition of all comments to PO.
- Final Summary Report
Submit the final
summary report and appendices to the PO, along with a completed 2005 Style
Guideline checklist. Follow the requirements of AHRQ's Style
Guidelines in preparing the final report and appendices. Questions about
any part of the AHRQ Style Guidelines should be directed to Julius Patterson
(301-427-1896 or julius.patterson@ahrq.hhs.gov).
The report and appendices are to be submitted in hard copy and
electronically for preparation of Web publication. This will occur via a secure
Web site or on re-writable disks (Microsoft® Word® for the body of the
report). Electronic files for charts, etc., prepared in another program (e.g.,
Excel®) must be submitted. Tables and charts must be unlinked from
underlying databases.
- Develop Prototype Toolkit
The contractor shall use findings from the literature review, environmental
scan, and RFI to develop a practical and easy to use toolkit of available
workflow analysis and redesign methods and tools that ambulatory care
practitioners can use. The purpose of the toolkit is to help ambulatory care
providers to better define their practice problems and identify how and where
health IT can help in practice workflow redesign. The toolkit shall provide
summaries of each of the analytic tools and methods that include:
-
Tool or method name.
-
Purpose of the method.
-
Advantages or disadvantages of the method.
-
Resources (time, personnel, materials) needed to use this tool.
-
Expected results.
-
Reference to other publicly available materials on the tool.
The contractor
shall look for tools to include that are available in the public domain. If
the contractor finds tools that are proprietary, the contractor will work to
obtain permission to use them in the toolkit. The Toolkit is required to be in
the public domain. Tool copyright holders must make their tools freely
available.
The toolkit
shall make use of relevant examples of how some of the tools were used in
practice. It will also include a decision guide or framework about when and
how to adopt health IT to enhance workflow and shall include information about
publicly available resources on each of the different types of health IT
applications currently available. Also refer to H.1 Release And Use And
Copyright Of Data First Produced From Work Performed Under This Contract (See
Section H – SPECIAL CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS).
- User Test
The contractor
will identify ambulatory care practitioners to participate in a users' group
that will vet the prototype toolkit and provide feedback on whether they would
use it, how they would use it, its usefulness and potential utility, and
whether it is missing any areas. Submit the names and professional
affiliations of these individuals to the PO. AHRQ may provide names of
individuals or organizations to user test. The contractor will summarize all
the users' comments and provide a summary to the PO. The contractor and PO will discuss the users' feedback and agree on how to revise the toolkit and how to
incorporate users' suggestions.
- Dissemination Activities
The
contractor will develop and submit a dissemination plan for PO review. The
contractor will conduct dissemination activities, as agreed upon with the PO, to promote the toolkit and make it available to relevant stakeholders (e.g. Quality
Improvement Organizations (QIOs), Medical Group Management Association (MGMA),
professional medical societies). The contractor will work with the PO to
coordinate dissemination efforts with the Agency's Office of Communication and
Knowledge Transfer (OCKT) and also disseminate the tool through the National Resource Center for Health IT. The Project Officer will coordinate the activities
between the Contractor and OCKT.
- Final Toolkit
Based
on agreed upon feedback from the users and the PO the contractor will revise
the toolkit.
- Presentation Slides
The Contractor will prepare and submit a PowerPoint presentation
that can be used to summarize the report findings to stakeholders. The
presentation should be 20-30 slides and suitable for non-technical audiences.
D. Section 508 Compliance
This language is applicable to Statements of Work (SOW) or
Performance Work Statements (PWS) generated by the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) that require a contractor or consultant to (1) produce
content in any format that could be placed on a Department-owned or
Department-funded Web site; or (2) write, create or produce any communications
materials intended for public or internal use; to include reports, documents,
charts, posters, presentations (such as Microsoft PowerPoint) or video material
that could be placed on a Department-owned or Department-funded Web site.
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d)
requires Federal agencies to purchase electronic and information technologies
(EIT) that meet specific accessibility standards. This law helps to ensure that
Federal employees with disabilities have access to, and use of, the information
and data they need to do their jobs. Furthermore, this law ensures that members
of the public with disabilities have the ability to access government
information and services.
There are three regulations addressing the requirements detailed
in Section 508. The Section 508 technical and functional standards are codified
at 36 CFR Part 1194 and may be accessed through the Access Board's Web site at http://www.access-board.gov. The second regulation issued to
implement Section 508 is the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). FAR Part
39.2 requires that agency acquisitions of Electronic and Information Technology
(EIT) comply with the Access Board's standards. The entire FAR is found at
Chapter 1 of the Code of Federal Register (CFR) Title 48, located at http://www.acquisition.gov. The FAR rule implementing Section 508
can be found at http://www.section508.gov. The third applicable regulation is the
HHS Acquisition Regulation (HHSAR).
Regardless of format, all Web content or communications materials
produced for publication on or delivery via HHS Web sites—including text,
audio or video—must conform to applicable Section 508 standards to allow
Federal employees and members of the public with disabilities to access information
that is comparable to information provided to persons without disabilities. All
contractors (including subcontractors1) or consultants responsible for
preparing or posting content intended for use on an HHS-funded or HHS-managed
Web site must comply with applicable Section 508 accessibility standards, and
where applicable, those set forth in the referenced policy or standards
documents below. Remediation of any materials that do not comply with the
applicable provisions of 36 CFR Part 1194 as set forth in the SOW or PWS, shall
be the responsibility of the contractor or consultant retained to produce the
Web-suitable content or communications material.
1 Prime contractors may enter into subcontracts in the performance
of a Federal contract, but the prime remains obligated to deliver what is
called for under the contract.
References:
HHS Policy for Section 508 Electronic and
Information Technology (E&IT) (January 2005): http://www.hhs.gov/od/Final_Section_508_Policy.html
HHS Section 508 Web site: http://508.hhs.gov/
HHS ASPA Web Communications Division Web
site: http://www.hhs.gov/Web/policies/index.html
US General Services Administration (GSA)
Section 508 Web site: http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm
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