Attachment_A_-_QASP.pdf

ATTACHMENT A – QUALITY ASSURANCE SURVEILLANCE PLAN

QUALITY ASSURANCE

The Government will measure the contractor's performance under the performance objectives listed in the following table by applying the corresponding performance standards and acceptable performance quality levels (PQL).

Performance Standards/Outcomes Acceptable Performance

Quality Level

Monitoring Method Incentive

1. General Operations and Project Management (Core Hours) - Personnel shall be available Monday – Friday from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm Eastern Time.

No deviation permitted except under valid emergency situations or prior approval of the COR

OMH will randomly call and visit OMHRC several times each month.

Percentage deduction 0.5% each month.

2. General Operations and Project Management (Annual Work Plans) - The contractor’s annual work plans covering each major functional area (library, information services, communications and outreach, technical assistance and capacity development, information technology, management) shall be based on the statement of work, provide milestones and objectives that are consonant with OMH’s annual objectives and GPRA goals, be submitted in draft within 60 days of the start of each contract year and include budget projections sufficient to show how the work can be accomplished within the existing budget.

No deviation permitted in coverage of major functional areas – all must be addressed in the work plan. The submission date may be extended only with prior COR approval.

The COR shall review and discuss work plans with the contractor at the beginning of each contract year.

0.5% if not delivered within 60 days.

3. Library Services (New Materials Acquisition) - The contractor shall acquire 150 new materials for the OMHRC library each month. The library will increase its digit footprint by 1 percent each month.

No more than 10% under collection or digitizing in two months in any contract year, as long as annual targets are met.

OMH will examine monthly acquisition reports and randomly ask for items from the new acquisitions list several times each month.

0.5% each month.

4. Library Services (Health Topic Updates) - The contractor shall update the Data by Racial and Ethnic statistics profiles sections of the web site with the latest available data within one month of

No more than 2 instances of out-of-date data in one contract year.

OMH will randomly check statistics pages for the latest available data and will investigate

Percentage deduction 0.5% each

Performance Standards/Outcomes Acceptable Performance

Quality Level

Monitoring Method Incentive publication of new data releases from the National Center for Health Statistics.

customer complaints about the currency of these data.

5. Information Services (General Information Services) - The contractor shall ensure that 100% of requests are answered by mail, telephone, e-mail, or fax as appropriate. Information requests received via email shall be acknowledged within one business day.

A minimum of 90% of all requests shall be answered within five (5) working days or fewer, with the remaining answered within seven (7) working days. In unusual circumstances, not to exceed 2% of inquiries, a maximum of ten (10) working days shall be permitted for complex requests. Such a complex request might involve multiple literature searches and collection of information from national or community organizations that are not already in OMHRC files and databases.

Responses shall consist of either complete fulfillment of the request or acknowledgment of the request with an indication of its status and planned follow-up action.

No deviations permitted in the percentages listed.

No more than 1 valid, unsolicited complaint per month.

OMH will review monthly statistics on inquiries and responses maintained by the contractor and shall investigate customer complaints about response times and completeness.

The contractor shall cooperate with any customer surveys approved by the department for use with OMHRC customers.

deduction 1 % each month.

6. Communications and Outreach (508 Compliance) - All OMH web templates, pages and documents posted on the OMH web site, all electronic newsletters and broadcast emails and their attachments shall be checked for section 508 compliance before posting with the appropriate compliance tools – IBM Policy Tester/Watchfire if possible, WAVE 4.0, Adobe Acrobat Professional

8.0 or higher for PDFs and other software that may be recommended or required by the HHS/ASPA web team, or identified as an acceptable alternative.

All errors discovered after posting shall

Deviations will be permitted in cases where an essential compliance monitoring tool, such as the HHS enterprise license for Watchfire, is unavailable or not functioning, but must subsequently be remediated. Deviations shall be permitted when interpretation of a standard has changed, requiring remediation of a substantial portion of the existing web site.

HHS/ASPA

Watchfire scans, statistics prepared for HHS on percentage of compliance with remediation plans and HHS/ASPA feedback on web page scans initiated for purposes of press release clearance.

Performance Standards/Outcomes Acceptable Performance

Quality Level

Monitoring Method Incentive be remedied as soon as practicable, but no later than 2 business days after posting or discovery. The contractor shall participate fully in any remediation plans adopted by the Department with respect to section 508 compliance and shall meet annual targets for remediation for OMH web sites it manages.

7. Communication and Outreach (Electronic Newsletter) - The contractor shall write and distribute a monthly electronic newsletter on minority health cleared by the COR before distribution.

No deviation from the requirement to submit the newsletter to the COR for clearance before publication. Deviation from the publishing schedule will require prior approval of the COR.

Content errors and style problems in the published newsletter must be fixed the same business day they are identified.

OMH staff shall review the newsletter before publication, and user comments received by OMHRC after publication.

0.5% each month.

8. Communications and Outreach (Campaign Events) - Each campaign event supported by OMHRC shall have an event plan that identifies its purpose in the overall campaign, lists dates, times, locations, audience, partners, parties responsible for each phase of the event, press coverage anticipated, and talking points for principals for which OMH is responsible. Plans for community events shall set goals for number of people from designated target audiences. Press events shall set objectives for coverage from local, state or national media as appropriate to the event. Execution of campaign events planned, organized and/or staffed by OMH shall accomplish the intended goal and achieve the objectives of the event plan as closely as practical. After action reports shall be submitted within one week of the end of the event (one week after the last event in the case of back to back events).

Permitted Deviation No deviation in terms of holding scheduled events, unless changed by circumstances outside the contractor’s control. One deviation per year in late after action reports. No events for which even partial success cannot be reported.

OMH will meet with the contractor to review and refine campaign and event plans. OMH staff will review press coverage, after action reports and communications from partners, HHS principals and celebrity spokespeople involved in the campaign. OMH COR will attend randomly selected events to observe performance.

Performance Standards/Outcomes Acceptable Performance

Quality Level

Monitoring Method Incentive

9. Communications and Outreach (Exhibit Program) - The national exhibit program shall maintain an adequate balance of opportunities to meet with the various racial and ethnic minority populations, key public health constituencies and health issues relevant to OMH’s short- and long-term priorities.

Ads for show programs are completed by deadlines. Exhibits, material and exhibitors arrive on time, exhibits are set up at the beginning of the show, and exhibitors stay until the end, and are courteous and well informed. After action reports submitted within one week of the end of show (one week of the last event in the case of back to back shows). After action reports describe audience, estimated attendance, data on leads acquired or materials distributed, qualitative judgment of success of the exhibit, recommendations for future.

Exhibits are maintained in good working order at all times. The contractor promptly informs OMH of exhibits needing repair.

No deviations in terms of on-time arrival/departure from shows unless there are circumstances (weather for example) outside contractor’s control. No missing exhibit reports. Two late exhibit reports during a 12-month period.

Meetings with COR every six months to review exhibit plan and results. OMH staff will attend several exhibits over the course of the year to assess contractor performance. OMH will review after action reports for completeness and value in making decisions about future participation.

OMH will periodically examine exhibits to determine that they are in good working order.

Exhibits, exhibit graphics and equipment damaged through contractor negligence (improper packing and shipping, exhibits or equipment abandoned on the show floor, materials lost after delivery to the contractor’s warehouse) rather than normal wear and tear shall be repaired or replaced at the contractor’s expense.

Percentage deduction 0.5% each

10. Communications and Outreach Quarterly web usage OMH staff shall Favorable

Performance Standards/Outcomes Acceptable Performance

Quality Level

Monitoring Method Incentive

(GPRA Goal Attainment) - The contractor shall seek to increase public usage of the OMH web site as a source of information on minority health. The contractor shall seek to attain OMH’s annual GPRA goal for unique visitors to the web site and shall participate with the COR in setting goals for growth in users.

targets may deviate from the annualized GPRA target and shall be used for course corrections.

review the contractor’s marketing plan for feasibility, creativity and cost-effectiveness. OMH staff shall review monthly, quarterly and annual reports of web usage for the site and for individual pages submitted by the contractor.

past performance evaluations and letters of commendatio n for contractor organization

11. Communications and Outreach (Mailing Lists) - The contractor shall maintain mailing lists to facilitate distribution of minority health information to the public and professional audiences.

This shall include capability to email as appropriate to OMHRC users, organizations listed in the OMHRC database, OMH grant recipients, customers seeking OMH grant information when published, media including minority media and health writers, and recipients of OMHRC technical assistance.

The contractor shall be able to assemble an email list for all OMH requirements and requests in line with its mailing list plan.

Returns from large email distributions shall not exceed 10% of the number mailed.

OMH will review contractor data on how it chooses to segment the mailing lists, its conduct of mailing list updates and its return rates.

OMH will review the health writer list assembled by the contractor for its coverage of appropriate media.

OMH will seek feedback from other HHS organizations including regional staff who may use OMHRC lists for their experience of the lists’ utility and return rates.

Percentage deduction 0.5% each month.

12. Capacity Development and Technical Assistance Center (Technical Assistance and Capacity Development) - The contractor shall conduct technical assistance and capacity development activities for minority community organizations

No deviations in terms of complete and accurate database reports on technical assistance encounters and complete records after action on consultations. Quarterly

OMH staff will request and examine the contractor’s database reports, a sample of after action reports and

Percentage deduction 1% each month.

Performance Standards/Outcomes Acceptable Performance

Quality Level

Monitoring Method Incentive

(including faith based organizations) and state, territorial, county and local health departments.

Needs assessments are thorough, reflect wide input the community or communities targeted for attention and provide a plausible and feasible basis for future technical assistance activities.

Regional skills building conferences are organized to deliver information and training requested by the community as part of needs assessments or other documented inquiries.

One-on-one consultations with organizations result in reportable improvements in local capacity.

Proposals for special projects are thorough, well developed and reflect OMH, HHS and MAI priorities. The contractor will seek to achieve annual GPRA targets for each activity and will participate with the COR in developing future targets.

reports on GPRA targets may deviate from the annualized GPRA target and shall be used for course corrections. No deviation on skills building conferences without prior approval of the COR. The annual target on technical assistance consultations must be within 10% of the goal.

customer correspondence from each type of technical assistance and capacity development activity to verify numbers, completeness of information regarding target populations and organizations served and to review quality of impact. OMH staff will request interim briefing on the progress of special projects, review progress and financial reports from grant recipients and formal evaluations conducted as part of the special projects to ensure that high-profile activities remain on track.

OMH staff will attend selected regional skills-building conferences to assess contractor performance and customer satisfaction and inter-agency meetings and teleconferences to assess the effectiveness of collaboration with HHS agency partners.