231332 RFR Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners SANE1 updated.docx

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of public health Bureau of Community Health and Prevention

Address:

250 Washington Street 4th Floor Boston, MA 02108

Contact Name:

Laurie Nirenberg

Email:

Laurie.C.Nirenberg@mass.gov

Request for Response (RFR)

Document Title: Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners

COMMBUYS BID Number: 231332

DPH RFR Document Number: BD-22-1031-BCHAP-BCH01-69868

01/20/2022

Comment by Curley, Mary Beth (DPH): We need to remove references to quote submissions. The are not required to upload quotes into COMMBUYS. I am wondering if BCHAP wants to add something here about how they are requiring quote submission. Comment by Barry, Elizabeth (DPH): edited

APPLICATION SUBMISSION

This RFR requires the submission of electronic application and documentation at https://redcap.link/MASANE_FY23_RFR See section 7.2 Submission Instructions for complete application information. All applicants are advised to allow adequate time for submission of their documents by considering potential online impediments like Internet traffic, Internet connection speed, file size, and file volume. DPH is not responsible for delays encountered by applicants or their agents, or for an applicants’ local hardware failures, such as computers or related networks, associated with application or submission.

VENDOR ACTIVATION

To receive a contract with the state a vendor must be active in The Massachusetts Management Accounting and Reporting System (MMARS). MMARS is the official accounting system of the Commonwealth and once registered a vendor will be issued a Vendor Code number or a “VC” number. This VC number is used for all contracts that a vendor has with state agencies. An organization with existing state contracts or a vendor who has had state contracts with any state agency in the past has been registered in MMARS and does not need to re-submit paperwork again unless existing information in MMARS will need to be updated. As part of this RFR application a potential bidder who is new to the state system or who will need to update existing information in MMARS must follow the instructions found within the Application and in the Vendor Activation Folder (VENDACT) in the Attachments for this RFR.

UNSPSC: ___ 931317000000____ Object Code: _MM1_______ Activity Code: ___4702____

1.1 Procurement Scope and Description:

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) seeks credentialed and certified Adult/Adolescent Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) (and those Adult/Adolescent SANEs who have been cross-trained to care for pediatric patients in designated regions) to deliver services to adult/adolescent patients of sexual assault, and pediatric patients as appropriate, at MDPH-designated SANE sites.

The MA Department of Public Health’s Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Program acknowledges how long-standing racism, structural racism and implicit bias have profoundly impacted people of color resulting in harm, pain, inequity, discrimination, and mistrust of healthcare and criminal justice systems. The Program is working diligently to ensure that SANE Program protocols, policies, practices and education do not perpetrate harm, are inclusive and incorporate feedback from diverse populations to increase equitable access to SANE services. The Program is seeking SANE contractors, who actively examine their explicit and implicit biases in order to provide equitable, trauma-informed SANE care for all patients, and who actively address instances of racism perpetrated by others during patient encounters. The Program is committed to providing and supporting educational opportunities to support this life-long learning process.

MDPH-certified SANEs shall provide compassionate, coordinated, comprehensive care to victims of sexual assault through a multidisciplinary approach that also enhances efforts to successfully prosecute assailants through quality evidence collection and the provision of expert court testimony. The MA SANE model of service delivery utilizes regional on-call schedules which assures that specially trained, MDPH-certified SANEs are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to respond to designated hospital emergency departments/urgent care centers. These MDPH-certified SANEs respond within 60 minutes to a page from a designated SANE site. They provide medical-forensic care including forensic evidence collection for victims of sexual assault who present at these designated sites within five days (120 hours) of the assault (adult and adolescent victims, age 12+) or within three days (72 hours) of the assault (pediatric patients younger than age 12). MDPH-certified SANEs are also trained to serve as fact or expert witnesses in civil and criminal cases that may arise.

Certification as a MA SANE requires extensive initial training and testing by the MDPH, and subsequent annual re-certification requires adherence to all annual re-certification criteria and shall be subject to ongoing performance evaluation by the SANE Program.

This is a rolling enrollment procurement. Applications shall be reviewed, and applicants selected and added to the Master Agreement, as responses are received. To ensure a start date of July 1, 2022, responses from currently and formerly certified MA SANEs must be received by February 18, 2022. Responses received after February 18, 2022 may have a delayed start date.

1.2 Applicable Procurement Law

Executive Branch Goods and Services

1.3 Whether Single or Multiple Contractors Are Required For Contract(s):

Check One (“X”):

1.4 Calendar Rule Type:

1.5 Acquisition Method:

1.6 Use of a Procurement by a Single or Multiple Departments:

· Identify additional Eligible Entities by name or type.

The Purchasing Department reserves the right to add or remove additional authorized users during the contract term.

1.7 Expected Duration of Contract:

Anticipated Initial Duration up to: __5__ year(s) _0___months;

Anticipated Renewal Options: __1__ options to renew for ___5__ year(s) each option

Final End Date of this Contract: _June 30, 2032_______________________

1.8 Anticipated Expenditures, Funding Or Compensation For Expected Duration

Estimated Value of Procurement including all potential renewals $___15,000,000.00______

Estimated Annualized amount $_1,500,000.00________

Check One (“X”):

Will Federal Funds be used to fund any part of Contract(s)?

Funds Balance Forward Requirement for Capital, Trust and Federal Accounts Only: Any funds designated in the budget that are unspent in any fiscal year will not be available for expenditure in the subsequent fiscal year.

2.0 Specifications

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Qualifications and Role

To be eligible to apply for this RFR, the vendor must:

· Have obtained certification by MDPH as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (MA SANE)

· Meet all Requirements for Professional Licensure and MA SANE Certification/Recertification (below)

· Agree to comply with all requirements of the MA SANE Affirmations (attached)

· Agree to comply with the MA SANE clinical Protocols (available at https://www.mass.gov/ma-sexual-assault-nurse-examiner-sane-program)

· Have and submit documentation of:

· Current Basic Life Support (BLS) (or ACLS) certification

· Records of current immunizations 1, 2, including MMR, Varicella, Hepatitis B, and TDAP

· Record of a minimum of one negative TB-ppd/Mantoux

· Current independent, individual professional liability insurance policy with minimums of $1 million per claim and $3 million minimum aggregate. Hospital-based, principle named, or self-insured hospital insurance policies are not acceptable.

1 At time of contract initiation, applicants will be required to submit updated proof of immunizations for any which have expired since time of application submission.

2 The MDPH reserves the right to update, change, or add to the list of required immunizations at any time during the contract period.

Upon execution of contract with the Department under this Procurement, the active MA SANE must be available on-call for approximately 30 hours per month (may be more or less, depending on the needs of the Region in which they provide services, and at the discretion of the SANE Program Regional Coordinator and/or Associate Director) to provide these services. The Department of Public Health reserves the right to limit or expand the number hours of coverage available to/required of individual vendors. The Department of Public Health also reserves the right to limit the number of vendors on the Master Agreement list so that sensible contract management and adequate SANE coverage throughout the Commonwealth may be achieved. No vendor contracted for this procurement is guaranteed to deliver services as a SANE throughout the duration of the contract.

Requirements for Professional Licensure and MA SANE Certification/Recertification

The vendor shall have achieved and shall maintain licensure as a Registered Nurse, Advanced Practice Nurse or, Physician in Massachusetts. The vendor shall maintain such clinical professional licensure in good standing, and shall report immediately to the SANE Regional Coordinator, Associate Director, or Program Director, any known complaint, suspension, revocation, or other enforcement action related to their clinical professional licensure.

To provide direct patient care as a MA SANE, the vendor must meet all certification and annual recertification requirements as outlined in the MDPH Certification and Recertification Requirements for Adolescent, Adult and Pediatric Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners document (included here in READ file), which represents current (2015) certification and recertification requirements. The vendor understands and agrees that the current requirements may be updated at the sole discretion of MDPH during the life of the procurement and/or prior to contract activation.

Active MA SANEs are required to attend a minimum of 50% of monthly regional SANE meetings, clinical skills trainings, and all recertification trainings unless excused absence has been granted in writing by Regional Coordinator.

Population served

Certified Adult/Adolescent MA SANEs provide direct clinical and forensic care to sexual assault patients ages 12 years and older. A limited number of MA SANEs are additionally trained to provide care for pediatric patients 11 years and younger.

SANE Responsibilities

When paged by a designated SANE site, the SANE must:

I. Answer the page within 10 minutes.

II. Determine the patient’s eligibility requirements per MDPH SANE Protocols.

III. Arrive at MDPH-designated site within 60 minutes of being paged.

IV. Coordinate care for the patient. This includes all phases of the MDPH SANE protocol, including but not limited to:

a. For the Adult/Adolescent patient:

i. Obtaining informed consent for care

ii. Medical exam

iii. Ongoing patient monitoring

iv. STI testing and treatment and offering timely access to emergency contraception, per protocol

v. Forensic evidence collection and maintaining chain of custody using the Massachusetts Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit (MSAECK)

vi. Photo-documentation

vii. Collaborating with the advocate from the regional community rape crisis center(s)

viii. Facilitating or completing all mandated report

ix. Facilitating police reporting if requested by the patient

x. Safety planning and coordination of follow-up care

b. For the Pediatric patient (only SANEs cross-trained to provide Pediatric care):

i. Obtaining informed consent for care from patient’s guardian, per protocol

ii. Medical exam

iii. Ongoing patient monitoring

iv. STI testing and treatment, per protocol

v. Forensic evidence collection and maintaining chain of custody using the Massachusetts Pediatric Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit (MA PEDI Kit),

vi. Collaboration with the Children’s Advocacy Center-based Pediatric SANEs regarding for follow-up care in appropriate cases.

vii. Facilitating or completing all mandated reports, including 51A filing

viii. Facilitating police reporting if requested by the patient/guardian

ix. Safety planning and coordination of follow-up care V. Provide testimony when summoned for civil and criminal cases that may arise pertaining to the case.

Data Collection

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners are required to comply with the completion of the SANE Program designated data collection and data systems. Each vendor shall be responsible for ensuring that all required data pertaining to their SANE patient care are completed accurately and submitted in accordance with the MDPH SANE Protocols and practices.

Compensation

Compensation for contracted SANEs will be in accordance with the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program Master Agreement Unit Rates Description (attached here in INFO folder), which represents current (2021) compensation rates. The vendor understands and agrees that the current rates may be updated at the sole discretion of MDPH during the life of the procurement

CORI Requirements

In accordance with EOHHS policy, an individual's background, including any CORI and other relevant information, must be carefully considered so that the vulnerable populations served by EOHHS are protected. An annual CORI check is required for all contracted MA SANEs.

Testimony

In the event that a MA SANE is summoned to provide testimony for civil or criminal cases that may arise pertaining to SANE services performed while an active MA SANE, the MA SANE may request compensation for time and expenses associated with that activity, such as trial preparation and court testimony, by submitting an invoice to the MA SANE Program. This activity will be reviewed for approval and payment by the MA SANE Program under a separate Open Order, and paid according to the published rates in this RFR.

3.0 Performance Requirements and Contract Monitoring

The Department of Public Health is endeavoring to deliver the best value to facilitate our needs. However, it is important to measure the contractor’s performance to ensure the contract is in compliance with what has been requested and what the contractor has offered in this RFR. All SANEs contracting with MDPH shall be subject to annual performance reviews as outlined below..

The following performance areas will be subject to measurement during annual performance reviews:

1. Compliance with requirements for on-call shift coverage

2. Timely delivery (services, data reporting, invoicing, etc.)

3. Expert delivery of sexual assault exams; SANE charts shall be subject to quality assurance audits by MDPH SANE Program

4. Responsiveness to Hospital pages within required timeframe

5. Responsiveness to MDPH inquiries

6. Responsiveness to requests for testimony and the provision of testimony for civil and criminal cases that may arise

7. Compliance with completion of SANE documentation forms, data collection, and mandatory reporting

8. Attendance at all mandatory SANE trainings and a minimum of 50% of monthly Regional SANE meetings

Any vendor contract may be suspended or terminated by MDPH with or without cause per Sections 4 and 5 of the Commonwealth Terms and Conditions.

4.0 Contract Invoicing

The Vendor shall submit invoicing for services to the MA SANE Program on a bi-weekly basis, according to the schedule distributed annually to all vendors on the Master Agreement.

Payment through Electronic Funds Transfer is required for any contract awarded through this solicitation. The EFT form and instructions on how and when to submit this form can be found in the Vendor Activation Folder (VENDACT) in the Attachments for this RFR.

5.0 Evaluation Criteria

The Evaluation Team will review each application for completeness and inclusion of the following correct and fully completed documents. Note that incomplete or incorrect documents may result in rejection of the application, or in significantly delayed contract start date.

6.0 Estimated Procurement Calendar

Deadline for Questions and Answers All Questions must be received in writing. Questions can be sent by email no later than the date and time indicated in the Procurement Calendar. The issuing department reserves the right not to respond to questions submitted after this date. All Questions with answers will be posted on the COMMBUYS Attachment section for this procurement.

February 11, 2022 5pm EST MASANE@mass.gov

The BID opening date (Deadline for Submission of Response) All responses to be submitted electronically using the online submission tools available to active COMMBUYS account holders.

This is a rolling RFR. Bidders may submit proposals during the entire contract period. Applications will be reviewed as they are received. Comment by Spencer, Alafia (DPH):

7.0 Requirements/Instructions for Submission of Responses

7.1 Submission Requirements

Vendor Activation Requirements: As part of this RFR application a potential bidder who is new to the state system or who will need to update existing information in MMARS must follow the instructions found in the Vendor Activation Folder (VENDACT) in the Attachments for this RFR.

Prompt Payment Discounts (PPD): All bidders responding to this procurement are strongly encouraged to participate in the Commonwealth Prompt Payment Discount (PPD) initiative for receiving early and/or on-time payments. PPD benefits both contractors and the Commonwealth. Contractors benefit by increased, usable cash flow as a result of fast and efficient payments for commodities or services rendered. Participation in the Electronic Funds Transfer initiative further maximizes the benefits with payments directed to designated accounts, thus eliminating the impact of check clearance policies and traditional mail lead time or delays. The Commonwealth benefits because contractors reduce the cost of products and services through the applied discount. Payments that are processed electronically can be tracked and verified through the Comptroller’s Vendor Web system. The PPD form can be found on the OSD Forms page and in this solicitation at the COMMBUYS Bid Solicitation and can be uploaded as part of your submission. Comment by Joan Sham: Is this applicable?? Comment by Curley, Mary Beth (DPH): Yes.

7.2 Submission Instructions

All responses are to be submitted electronically by visiting https://redcap.link/MASANE_FY23_RFR and completing all required information and document uploads.

All responses must include:

· RFR Application (submitted online at https://redcap.link/MASANE_FY23_RFR)

· The online application includes documentation that must be uploaded by the vendor. They are:

· Required (REQ) – ALL APPLICANTS

· MA SANE Affirmations

· Confidentiality Agreement

· CORI consent

· BLS/ACLS certification documentation

· Immunization documentation

· Professional liability insurance

· Prompt Payment Discount

File Format and Naming Conventions

· Attachments/document uploads must be submitted in .pdf format.

· Scanned documents will be accepted and must be scanned in such a way that they can be read on a computer monitor and printed on 8 1/2” x 11” paper, unless otherwise specified.

· Attachments must be uploaded individually and cannot be combined in a zipped file.

· DPH is requesting that all response attachments include the name of the Bidder, the RFR number and the name of the document. (e.g. “Name _ RFR Number _Doc Name”; “Smith_231332_Confidentiality).

Public Records All information, documents, and attachments submitted as a response to this RFR are considered a public document subject to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L., c. 66, s. 10, and to c. 4, s. 7, ss. 26.

Amendments to BID DPH reserves the right to make amendments to the Bid after the initial publication. It is each Bidder’s responsibility to check for any amendments, addenda or modifications to this Bid. DPH and the Commonwealth accept no responsibility and will provide no accommodation to Bidders who submit a quote based on an out-of-date Bid or on information received from a source other than DPH.

8.0 RFR Attachments:

The forms listed in this RFR must be submitted with your application in Redcap where indicated. Comment by Joan Sham: We call it an application above – should we be consistent? Comment by Curley, Mary Beth (DPH): Yes

To assist bidders in identify the purpose of the attachments for this procurement; they have a prefix according to the following chart:

Standard Template 9/2021 image1.png image2.png image2.jpeg