Competency Assessment Tool SOW.pdf

STATEMENT OF WORK

FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS

Online Clinical Reference, Education, and Competency Assessment Software Program for Nurses and APPs

Background

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) provides health care to inmates in 120 institutions geographically dispersed throughout the contiguous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Medical services rendered to all federal inmates are governed by federal law BOP policies and procedures.

The BOP protects society by confining offenders in controlled environments of institutions and community-based facilities that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure. The health care mission of the BOP is to deliver medically necessary health care to inmates effectively in accordance with proven standards of care without compromising public safety concerns inherent to the BOP’s overall mission.

An online clinical reference, education, and competency assessment software program is a system for assessing, providing, maintaining and monitoring ongoing knowledge, skills, and continuing clinical education of a professional practitioner. It is a way of ensuring a high level of expertise, competence, and appropriate ethics in performing the job.

An online clinical reference, education, and competency assessment software program is an important component in ensuring that each health care profession is credible, useful, and respected within the health care field, and trusted by the public. When a competency program is evidence-based and peer reviewed, it has been shown to mitigate risk when legally challenged.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons wants to procure an online, on-demand continuing competency program for the 120 institutions with approximately 1300 nurses and 300 advanced practice providers (APPs). Having an online program enhances the standardization of education, clinical skills, and clinical competency Bureau-wide, which thereby decreases medical errors and enhances continuity of care across the Bureau. The online program would include continuing education modules with continuing education unit (CEU) credit for nursing and APP staff.

Objectives

The objective of this procurement is to award a contract to a company capable of providing an online clinical reference, skills training, and competency assessment program that will allow nurses and APPs the ability to refresh clinical skills, learn new clinical skills, and assess the competency of those skills in a standardized manner Bureau-wide. Additionally, the program objectives are to:

Improve patient outcomes, reduce errors, and promote consistent standardized care across the organization.

Promote effective and consistent assessment of patient care skills, improving patient safety and quality of care.

Empower our clinicians with the knowledge and confidence to make clinical decisions and facilitate delivery of care in unfamiliar settings or situations.

Maintain compliance with current national guidelines and in alignment with Joint Commission and accreditation standards.

Eliminate time wasted on unreliable Internet searches or tracking down protocols.

Contract Requirements

The contractor shall provide all labor, material, and software necessary to accomplish the following services:

The program shall assist health care professionals within the BOP to maintain compliance with current national guidelines, accreditation standards, and standards of care.

The program shall have evidence-based references, be peer reviewed, and updated as evidence-based practice changes.

The program shall have real-time access to step-by-step guides for evidence-based procedures and skills that includes information such as required equipment, skills checklists, patient instructions, complications, competency tests, and videos, images or diagrams.

Protocols, competency tests, nursing care plans, algorithms and procedure documents, if used, shall be customizable within the online system for BOP use.

The program shall provide compliance, competence indicators and quality measures for documentation.

The program shall allow for skills training and competency assessment to be managed by a BOP administrator or institutional management staff and allow for the ability to assign staff various courses, track their progress, and review their test scores, as appropriate.

The program shall have a comprehensive drug/medication reference manual within the online software system this is updated as evidence-based practice changes.

Ensure installation of the software program to allow usage to best meet the needs of the BOP.

The program shall be accessible by an unlimited number of users simultaneously without system limitations.

Provide the necessary training to staff on the use of the system.

Provide immediate notification of system outages or other unexpected interruptions within 24 hours to the COR by telephone or email, concurrent with the immediate notification to the facility’s Health Services Administrator or identified point of contact.

The program shall have a clinical online reference tool and technical support available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Recommend modifications or changes in software and operation procedures as needed.

Network Requirements

The skills and competency programs are accessed through the Internet. The BOP will not have anything placed on servers.

Access will be through an icon installed on the users’ computer, through the BOP’s IT department. The BOP will need access to the software program. There will be no additional equipment required.

The technical specs related to an Internet-based software program subscription service would be:

Workstation Specifications Compatible with Windows 11.

System Security Specifications Web (https) connections use at least 128-bit SSL encryption.

Web-based access is proxy-aware for all data (i.e. online system does not prohibit use of proxy servers to manage network traffic whether for data, audio or video).

Web-based connections use ports 80 or 443 only for connections (non-standard ports are not used) WAN/Telecommunications Supports the IPv6 network configuration

Contractor’s Qualifications

The contractor must have specific experience in comprehensive evidence-based education programs designed to optimize nursing staff and APPs’ performance, and have a minimum of five years’ experience in this field.

Reports

The program shall be able to provide the BOP facility and COR, summary statistical data and reports relating to agency and/or nationwide usage and performance data.

Training/Implementation

The contractor shall provide initial training to the Bureau, as required to use the online program prior to going live with the software program. If needed, the contractor will provide onsite training for a designated team of administrative super users.

The contractor will make available tutorials and/or online manuals for users. The contractor shall provide ongoing technical support for all software users, as requested upon approval of the participating agency or institutional contact.

Special Security and Clearance Requirements

It shall be the responsibility of the contractor, as directed by the COR, to ensure all necessary forms and information are completed and submitted in a timely manner.

In addition to the background investigations noted above, BOP security requirements include, but are not limited to the following:

a. National Crime Information Center (NCIC) checks.

b. National Agency Check with Inquiries (NACI).

c. Law enforcement agency checks.

d. National Law Enforcement Telecommunications (NLETS) checks.

e. Credit check.

f. Completed Standard Fingerprint Form (FD-258)

g. Completed Office of Personnel Management Optional Form

(OF-306), Declaration of Federal Employment and Appropriate Resume and Optional Application.

h. Completed Contractor Pre-Employment Form.

i. Release of Information.

j. Urinalysis.

k. Employment vouchering over the past five years.

If urinalysis is required, the test shall be administered at the closest BOP facility where work is to be performed. If the test is positive for drug usage, the individual(s) assigned to perform the work shall be excluded and the contractor shall be required to provide acceptable replacement personnel subject to the same security requirements.

Each of the contractor’s assigned employees shall submit to a security background check. This will require each employee to provide full name, birth date, address and social security number to the BOP, authorizing the BOP to check this data with the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). This information will be considered confidential and will be maintained in the BOP Central Office.

The contractor will agree that no employee will be allowed access to any BOP institution without the security check as required above or any additional security checks/information that may be required by the BOP in the future.

Period of Performance

Period of performance shall be one year with t one-year options.