Solicitation Attachment C - Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan.docx

QUALITY ASSURANCE SURVEILLANCE PLAN (QASP)

Ann Arbor Fisher House and VA Green Road Sleep Clinic Linen Services

Contract Number: ________________ Contractor: TBD Contract Description: The Contractor shall be responsible for laundering, processing, and delivery of all linens, which shall include bath towels, bath mats, shower curtains, sheets/ pillowcases, duvet covers and duvet inserts, coverlets, pillow shams, mattress covers(pad/bed bug cover), pillow protectors, throw blankets, decorative pillows, and bathrobes. The Contractor shall provide hospitality and hospital linen service in a manner that will maintain a satisfactory facility condition as determined by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR). The Contractor shall provide all necessary labor, transportation, supervision, equipment, supplies, laundry facilities, and coordination required to complete these services. Service shall be required two (2) days a week at the Fisher House and one day a week at the Green Road VA Sleep Clinic.

Authority: Authority to issue this QASP is provided under Federal Acquisition Clause (FAR) 52.212-4(a), Contract Terms and Conditions – Commercial Items, Inspection and Acceptance, which provides for inspections and acceptance of the articles, services, and documentation called for in the contract to be accomplished by the CO or a duly appointed representative.

QASP: This QASP has been developed to implement a service contract. It is designed to aid the Government's Quality Assurance Evaluator (QAE) in providing effective and systematic surveillance of all aspects of laundry/linen services. This plan provides for monitoring all contract requirements through a combination of methods. These are:

· Sampling guides

· Customer complaint surveillance guides; and

· Surveillance activity checklist.

The objective of this surveillance plan is to evaluate how the Contractor is performing in key areas. We are primarily interested in the final product or service being provided and not in the details of accomplishment.

The principal method of surveillance will be the random sampling of the quantity and quality of laundered items processed. The plan contains sampling guides for use in random sampling. It contains random sampling (tally) checklists which are used to record information about the random samples.

Tasks not surveyed by random sampling will be covered by daily observation in some cases or by use or periodic checklist inspections. Appropriate checklists are provided for recording observations in this type of surveillance.

HOW TO USE THE SURVEILLANCE PLAN

This surveillance plan has been organized to facilitate use by the QAE. It is the QAE's responsibility to develop a monthly schedule for activities based on the surveillance plan's requirements. The monthly schedule will be completed by the last workday of the preceding month and a copy will be submitted to the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) for information and review by an assigned workday of the month.

To build the inspection schedule, the QAE will select areas and times for the random sampling using the procedures shown in the surveillance plan. Periodic checklist items to be surveyed during the month will be programmed into the schedule to facilitate their accomplishment. This monthly schedule should show what the QAE is monitoring each day. Changes will be posted weekly, and copies sent to appropriate officials. The reasons for changes will be fully documented and explained. Actual surveillance activity must be comparable to the monthly schedule. The responsible management official must be able to observe a QAE's performance by using the monthly schedule, as updated. One should be able to conduct a complete audit trail from the monthly schedule by observing the QAE perform sampling or other checklist surveillance, and completion of tally and other checklists. An auditor should be able to track from the above items to the management's actions (payment deductions or other actions as necessary if contract service is being performed), described on a Contract Deficiency Report (CDR).

Monthly tally checklists will be prepared for each sampling guide and will be used to record information on observations and defects. Each observation in the sampling will be recorded on the tally checklists. These documents will then become a formal record for later reference. The tally of observations and defects at the end of each month will be compared to the acceptable number of defects appearing in the relevant sampling guide. Any errors detected during the course of the surveillance, even if not of sufficient degree to render the service unsatisfactory in terms of the Acceptable Quality Level (AQL) parameters, will require corrective action by the Contractor. Errors detected by the QAE in the course of surveillance will be transmitted to the Contractor for correction. Notification of errors will take place within 1 working day. Specifics concerning any errors should be recorded on the tally checklist. The Contractor should be asked to initial this record.

If the sampling guide indicates that the number of defects is too high, the current month's service will be considered unsatisfactory. If performance in any area is judged unsatisfactory, based on random sampling or other criteria as set forth in the Performance Requirements Summary Table in the Performance Work Statement (PWS) Section 22 and below, a Contractor will be given a CDR by the COR. When completed and signed, the CDR, along with the tally checklist becomes the documentation supporting payment or nonpayment or other actions as necessary for Contractor provided services.

There are some requirements in a contract which are more conveniently monitored on an individual periodic basis. For example, a Contractor is required to provide continuing training. When these items are checked (quarterly and monthly, for example), the deficiencies will be recorded on the appropriate checklist. When these items are discovered to be unsatisfactory, actions as described above will be taken. For the number of allowable defects, see the Performance Requirement Summary in the PWS.

Performance Requirements Summary Table:

(PWS Section 6)

(PWS Section 7)

serviceable and properly finished.

(PWS Sections 6, 11, 12, 13)

(PWS Sections 6, 9, 11, 16 )

(PWS Sections 7, 9, 11)

(PWS Section 5, 6.2)

Performance Requirements Summary Method of Application The Contractor is required to perform all the work specified in the PWS. If the contractor fails to perform a specific element of the work, payments for the task in question will be subject to reductions as specified. Any amount deducted for deviation from the required performance will be reflected in an amount commensurate with the task.

The purpose of this section is to:

List the contract requirements considered most critical to acceptable contract performance.

Show, where applicable, the maximum allowable degree of deviation from perfect performance for each requirement that shall be allowed by the Government before contract performance is considered unsatisfactory. This is known as the AQL and represents the level of service and quality required.

Show the percentages of the major elements of the contract price that each listed contract requirement represents.

Explain the quality assurance methods the Government will use to evaluate the Contractor's performance in meeting the contract requirements.

Define the procedure the Government shall use in reducing the Contractor's monthly payment if the Contractor does not render satisfactory performance.

The criteria for acceptable and unacceptable performance are as follows:

When the number of deficiencies in the Contractor's performance discovered by the COR exceeds the unacceptable criteria level, the COR with involvement and concurrence of the CO shall be required to complete a CDR. The CDR will require the Contractor to explain in writing to the CO why performance was unacceptable, how performance will be returned to acceptable levels, and how recurrence of the problem will be prevented in the future. The Contractor will not be paid for services not rendered in accordance with the standards set forth in the contract.

Other Requirements: The criteria for other requirements are the level of performance deemed acceptable to the Government. When the number of defects discovered by the COR exceeds the number shown in the AQL column, a CDR, as described above will be issued.

Monthly payments to the Contractor will be reduced for unsatisfactory performance using the following methods:

· During each month, Contractor performance will be compared to contract standards and acceptable quality levels using the QASP.

· If performance in any required service is unsatisfactory for the period of surveillance (monthly, quarterly, etc.) and the poor performance is clearly the fault of the Contractor, an amount of money up to the percentage cost of the service as stated in the fifth column of the Performance Requirements Summary will be withheld as described below.

The amount of money to be deducted for unsatisfactory performance will be computed as follows:

· Total monthly contract price multiplied by the percentage of the function represented by the required service (see deduction amount (monthly billing) column of Performance Requirements Summary).

EXAMPLE PER DISCREPANCY:

IF: "Shipment Quotas are not met." (Contractor is allowed 4 discrepancies) AND: "Shipment Quotas" - deduction percentage is 1% for each discrepancy over 4, NTE 10% AND: Number of total defective deliveries this month is 8 (less the 4 allowed, leaves 4, which results in 4% deduction percentage.

AND: CONTRACTOR'S INVOICE is $3,000.00 X Deduct Percentage 4% Deduction from this month's invoice is $120.00

CUSTOMER COMPLAINT SURVEILLANCE GUIDE.

The checklists attached hereto contain those contract requirements that can best be monitored by the individual or activity receiving the service.

At the start of the contract, the QAE shall instruct customers on the requirements of the contract and on the proper method to complete the customer complaint form. A written copy of the specific contract requirement will be provided to each customer. Customers shall be required to submit the complaint form within 1 working day of the discovery of the discrepancy.

Once each year, the QAE will contact each customer to assure that there is an understanding of the contract requirements. The QAE will document the annual visits.

When a complaint is received, the QAE will contact the customer to verify the complaint. If the complaint is valid, the QAE will notify the Contractor of the defect in writing.

The QAE will retain the complaint form in the files. At the end of each month, all validated complaints will be tabulated to determine satisfactory or unsatisfactory performance, in each are, based on the criteria in the AQL column in the Performance Requirements Summary Table.

CUSTOMER COMPLAINT RECORD

Date/time of complaint:

Source of complaint:

Office:

Individual:

Nature of complaint:

QAE evaluation:

Date/time Contractor or VA informed of complaint:

CPM initials ___________________________

Action taken by Contractor or VA:

QAE signature ___________________________

SURVEILLANCE ACTIVITY CHECKLIST DATE: _______________

Laundry is clean, serviceable and properly finished

Name: __________________________ Contracting Officer’s Representative

Name: __________________________ Contracting Officer