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First
Contract Year - Executive Summary |
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When the Base Year Executive Summary for our NIH-wide
performance based contract for the provision of interpreting
services with Sign Language Associates (SLA) was released
last summer, the Worksite Enrichment Programs Branch
(WEPB), Division of Support Services (DSS), Office of
Research Services (ORS) received a tremendous amount
of positive feedback. Our goal had been to capture the
usage and trend data for our web-based request system,
and to also show how SLA fared in regards to the contract's
stated performance standards. Therefore, we would again
like to share an overview of this contract's activities
for the First Option year which ended on May 31, 2001.
While we thought that our first year's trend data had
provided us with sound usage projections, we now see that
there were several "unknowns" which caused the
interpreting service hours used to go far beyond our estimates.
This is best illustrated by the hours of service provided
in June 2000 to May 2001. In June of 2000, the contract
provided 678.5 billable hours, and by May 2001 this figure
rose to 1162.5 billable hours. This dramatic increase
indicates that NIH consumers are still using our services
with confidence, but more importantly, we are committed
and able to meet interpreting service request increases
which help promote reasonable accommodations for additional
new staff, patients, interns and visitors.
Numbers are one aspect for measuring our success in administering
our contract with SLA. However, there are eight specific
performance standards which have financial penalties to
the contractor if not met for each contract month. These
standards are used by the Project Office to more effectively
administer the services being provided by SLA to the NIH.
To date, there was only one month, November, when SLA
was penalized for not meeting two of the eight standards.
The Project Office saw that SLA had encountered internal
scheduling and logistical issues which caused several
requests not to be filled for that month. These deficiencies
were adequately addressed by SLA. Since that time, we
are pleased to note that SLA has continued to meet and
or exceed all standards.
The Project Office is also very proud of the relationships
we have built and maintained with SLA and the NIH. This
has been accomplished by keeping communication channels
open through various means. Over the past year, we made
several enhancements to our system based upon valuable
input from our consumers. Of special note was including
a place to indicate if the requestor/alternate's number
was TTY on the request form; updating the program so that
when edits were necessary when placing a request one did
not have to re-enter all previous information; and also
having the View Events option appear with a consumer's
most recent events at the top. For the continued collaboration
with those who took the time to share feedback and our
DSS IT support for making the suggestions work, the Project
Office offers our special thanks.
We were also pleased to have been invited and attend
several NIH fairs and festivals last year which gave us
opportunities to share the success of the NIH-wide centralized
interpreting services contract as well as showcase our
web-based request system. These events were a great internal
NIH advertisement tool, and also spawned interest from
other Federal agencies wishing to implement systems which
emulate ours.
Please find attached some informational highlights related
to the second year of contract activities. We hope you
will find it illuminating and of interest. The WEPB again
looks forward to continuing to assist in providing exceptional
interpreting services to the NIH for the remainder of
this contract. Should you have any questions, please feel
free to contact Ellen Grant, Project Officer, or Carole
Harman, Quality Assurance Assistant, at 402-8180 (v),
435-1908 (tty) or via email at GrantE@ors.od.nih.gov and
HarmanC@ors.od.nih.gov.
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