Response to Questions - AHRQ-11-10006.pdf

Health Care Innovations Exchange II RFP No. AHRQ-11-10006

Response to Questions Received

1. Attachment 2 Subtask 1.3, p.4 (Meeting Travel) – The first sentence states that “Federal experts will be responsible for their own travel arrangements and lodging costs”; the second sentence states “The Contractor shall provide hotel reservations at the Federal Government lodging per diem for Federal participants.” Is the second sentence supposed to refer to non-Federal participants?

The second sentence is supposed to refer to non-Federal participants and should read, “The Contractor shall provide hotel reservations at the Federal Government lodging per diem for non-Federal participants.” See the revised Statement of Work attached to this amendment.

2. Attachment 2, Subtask 1.6.3, p.12 (Validate System) states “The Contractor shall make available for download complete innovation documentation, if any, when copyright permission is received from the innovation submitter. The innovation documentation, if any shall be made available for download in at least two formats one of which must be ASCII text…” This could have major implications for storage and maintenance if many of the innovations include downloadable content from the innovators. Can AHRQ please provide guidance on the anticipated size and number of downloads for planning and budgeting purposes?

Based on experience to date, the anticipated number of downloads is 5% of the total published deliverable per year (that is, 5% of the total 75 – 80 innovation profiles to publish per year or 4 downloads per year) with an average file size of 1MB per download.

3. Attachment 2, Subtask 3.1, p. 16 (Overview Requirements) states “The Contractor shall create, implement, and maintain all mechanisms necessary to support the Innovations Exchange database and adjust the search algorithm and redesign the interface so that the Innovations Exchange users have the capacity to retrieve results from other, specific, complementary sites, if any.” Does this mean, for example, that a user could search for “patient safety” on the Innovations Exchange Web site and in addition to yielding search results from the Innovations Exchange, could also receive results from other sites such as AHRQ PSNet or the National Guideline Clearinghouse? If not, please provide examples of how this capacity might work.

Subtask 3.1 of Attachment 2, is modified as follows:

The Contractor shall create, implement and maintain all mechanisms necessary to support the Innovations Exchange database and adjust the search algorithm and redesign the interface to render relevant result sets that satisfy Innovation Exchange users. See the revised Statement of Work attached to this amendment.

4. Attachment 2, Subtask 3.5, p. 18 (Web site Requirements) states that the Innovations Exchange Web site should include “copyright indication, updated annually”. Can you clarify what is subject to copyright indication?

Upon further review of the Statement of Work - “copyright indication, updated annually” shall be removed from the Statement of Work. See the revised Statement of Work attached to this amendment.

5. Have you done any research with your target audience since 2005 to determine what would increase the effectiveness of the innovation exchange from their perspective? If so, what did you learn? If not, could this step be part of the proposal?

The HCIE has been conducting customer satisfactory surveys of its users. Refer to the Statement of Work, Subtask 5.2: Assist AHRQ with Customer Satisfaction Survey – “The Innovations Exchange currently solicits users to provide feedback about the site via the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey.”

“The Contractor shall assist the COTR in interpreting survey data analysis. The Contractor shall review rating reports and help analyze survey results and customer satisfaction feedback on a quarterly basis to identify areas for improvement to the Web site.”

6. It appears you intend to keep the existing architecture of your website and migrate it to the chosen vendor. Is that correct? Are you changing any functionality?

Because this is an established Web site, AHRQ has a need to continue seamless production.

Refer to the Statement of Work, Subtask 3.2: Startup/Transition Requirements as well as the Migration Plan/Transition Plan in the Technical Proposal Instructions.

As a user responsive resource, AHRQ includes a task on enhancements. See “Task 2:

Enhancements” in the Statement of Work.

7. Are the current editorial and advisory boards expected to be augmented or replaced?

Refer to the Statement of Work, Subtask 1.1 Establish and Maintain an Editorial Board – “The Contractor shall propose, establish with AHRQ approval, and maintain an editorial board…….”

Refer to the Statement of Work, Subtask 1.2 Establish and Maintain an Expert Panel – “The Contractor shall work with the Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR) to assemble a multidisciplinary panel of experts…….”

Refer to L.9 Technical Proposal Instructions - A. Response to the Statement of Work (SOW)

6) Technical Approach by Task - “Describe previous experience working with expert panels representing diverse interests in health care.” “Describe previous experience working with an editorial board, identify the nominees for the HCIE2 editorial board and describe the role and relationship of the HCIE2 editorial board relative to the contractor’s content team(s).”

8. What is your annual budget for this activity? On page 73, there is a mention of a size standard of $7m. Is that the same as your budget?

A size standard is the largest that a concern can be and still qualify as a small business for Federal Government programs. The size standard for this requirement under NAICS code, 541990, is $7 million in average annual receipts.

9. Is project management experience acceptable in lieu of the PMI-certification (page 84)?

No, project management experience is not acceptable in lieu of the PMI-certification.

10. Is there current Procurement history for this RFP?

The incumbent contractor is Westat, Inc. and the contract number is HHSA290200600002C.

11. How long the current contractor been performing this contractor?

The contract was effective on September 27, 2006 and expires September 26, 2011.

12. What is the maximum number of users by levels?

AHRQ interprets this question as if there is a licensed system that bidders are required to use.

AHRQ does not have such a system. As specified in Subtask 3.3 Technical Requirements (in the Statement of Work) AHRQ identifies the types of solutions of interest.

Regarding the public facing Web site, Subtask 3.6: Hardware Requirements (in the Statement of Work) identifies usage requirements. These requirements are independent of roles or levels of users.

13. Is the current Exchange built on Microsoft platform?

Yes, it is. See the Agency’s Technical Reference Model as well as Appendix B of the Statement of Work.