National COVID-19 Critical Care Response Team

*AMENDMENT 0001:

- Amendment 0001 adjusts the response due date from 04/21/2020 to 04/22/2020 at 03:00 PM (EST). 

- Questions and Answers will be posted via Amendment 0002. 

- All other notice requirements and conditions remaim unchanged. 

________________________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION

This is a Sources Sought Notice/Request for Information. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of qualified respondents. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition strategy.

The applicable NAICS code is 561320 –Temporary Help, with a sub-classification of Temporary Staffing Services. The applicable PSC codes are Q701 – Specialized Medical Support and Q999 – Other Medical Services. The period of performance for this effort may be varied, but a 12-month BASE Period with additional Option Periods is anticipated. Additional information is available in the Statement of Objectives (SOO) attachment.

BACKGROUND

The Indian Health Service (IHS), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. The mission of IHS is to raise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level and assure that comprehensive, culturally acceptable personal and public health services are available and accessible to members of the 574 federally recognized Tribes across the United States. The Indian Health Service Strategic Plan for Fiscal Year 2019-2023 guides ongoing efforts to provide health care for American Indians and Alaska Natives across the United States. The plan addresses access to quality health care services, strengthening organizational capacity, and improving operations and communications across the system.

On March 13, 2020, the President declared the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant an emergency declaration for all states, tribes, territories, and the District of Columbia pursuant to section 501 (b) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5121-5207 (the “Stafford Act”). COVID-19 patients who admit to the hospital are likely to be in extreme respiratory distress and require 24 hour/7 days a week intensive medical care. IHS federally managed and tribally managed hospitals and other facilities lack an adequate supply of trained and available physicians, nurses, and other health professionals with foundational emergency medicine/critical care knowledge and skills. Specifically, IHS anticipates a need to augment the doctors, nurses, and other health professionals at many federally managed or tribally managed hospitals, with a mobile response team comprised of critical care medical, nursing, respiratory, and other experts that can provide direct patient care and teach frontline staff how to manage these complex critical care patients. IHS must do everything possible to stabilize and treat COVID-19 patients, and other critically ill patients, save lives, and stop the continued spread of COVID-19 across Indian Country.

As of 4/13/2020, IHS has at least 1,124 confirmed COVID-19 cases in all 12 IHS Service Areas, with the majority of confirmed cases in Navajo Area (636); Albuquerque Area (175); and Oklahoma City Area (76). Source: IHS daily Coronavirus dashboard.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this contract is to deploy critical care response team(s) on an as needed basis who will provide urgent lifesaving medical care to stabilize and treat patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 admitted to an IHS or tribal hospital. The critical care response team(s) shall prepare and train frontline health care staff at IHS and tribal facilities using evidence-based/best practices. Critical Care Response team(s) shall deliver clinical education using a combination of approaches, including primarily onsite hands-on “at the bedside” to teach clinical competencies, support physician, and nurse clinical decision making; and synchronous or asynchronous virtual learning (when time permits). The Contractor shall ensure that offsite critical care clinical experts are available by telephone and/or virtual for provider-to-provider consultation for onsite staff and IHS or tribal medical/clinical leadership to seek advice to manage critically ill patients on a 24 hour/7 days a week basis.

SCOPE

The scope of this contract includes identification, staffing and managing multi-disciplinary, expert and mobile critical care response team(s). Critical Care Response team members shall also conduct hands-on clinical education while treating patients, in order to train the frontline health care professionals at each hospital the necessary skills and clinical competencies to perform procedures to care for the management of COVID-19 patients, and other critically ill patients. The Contractor shall provide pre and post-engagement support to each location in the scope, which includes 24 hour/7 days a week provider-to-provider consultation, and virtual training, as needed. Other IHS or tribal locations may be added in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak in a community not identified on Attachment 1 that requires the mobile critical care response team to be on-site to provide performance.

RESPONSE INFORMATION

The response must clearly demonstrate that a company has the capacity, personnel, systems and expertise in identification, staffing and managing of multi-disciplinary, expert and mobile critical care response team(s). The response shall be inclusive of on-site and virtual medical staff training capabilities and approaches.

INSTRUCTIONS TO INDUSTRY

All capable parties are encouraged to respond. Responses must directly demonstrate the company’s capability, experience, and ability to marshal resources to effectively and efficiently perform the objectives described above. Generic capability statements are not sufficient and will not be considered compliant with the requirements of this notice.

The Government requests interested parties submit a written response to this notice which includes the following:

1.  Company name and a brief description of their company's business size (i.e. annual revenues and employee size);

2.  Company point of contact, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, DUNS number, www.SAM.gov registration status, and website address;

3.  Name, telephone number, and e-mail address of a company point of contact who has the authority and knowledge to clarify responses with Government representatives;

4.  Business status (i.e., Small Business, SDB, 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOB, American Indian/Alaska Native owned business, etc.).  Type of company is validated via the System for Award Management (SAM). All respondents must be registered on SAM located at https://www.sam.gov;

5.  Do you plan to cover specific IHS Areas, groups of facilities, or do you have the capability for all locations in the scope? See Attachment 1: IHS Federal and Tribally Operated Hospitals Summary;

6. Briefly discuss your organization’s process to match qualified and available healthcare professionals to the hospital(s) where the team may be assigned;

7. Identify in your response if your organization can provide staff onsite only, or combination of onsite and telephone/virtual services. What support is offered virtually, and are experts available afterhours?;

8. Discuss what capabilities you have to manage and coordinate getting the Critical Care Response team members from location to location on short notice;

9. Identify which labor categories would be dedicated to IHS or tribal locations that your organization is capable of serving;

10. Briefly discuss your company’s approach and experience conducting hands-on and or clinical education on a variety of critical care topics in a rural hospital locations staffed with physicians, nurses, and other health professionals;

11. IHS seeks organization’s input into topics /procedures that IHS or tribal staff who need to care for COVID-19 patients or other critically ill staff may need education. Specifically, has your organization developed any guidance, protocols, policies, procedures, etc. and/or or trainings on management of COVID19 patients? If yes, briefly describe what these are;

12. The government seeks input from organizations as to the minimum qualification requirements and acceptable standards that should be considered for a Critical Care Response Team (See Attachment 2);

13. In addition to required labor categories, Task Area 2.1 (SOO), and Attachment 2, Contractors may propose other labor categories that may be available under the contract as optional labor categories.  If these labor categories are proposed, provide the minimum qualifications for each position (A. License, B. Education, C. Experience, D. Certifications, E. Required Minimum Duties);

14. The government seeks input into a proposed Schedule of Deliverables to meet all Task Area requirements;

15.  Company’s relevant past performance information;

16.  The firm’s capability and experience in working with Government healthcare agencies;

17.  Anticipated teaming arrangements (i.e. prime contractor/subcontractor, joint venture, mentor-protege relationship, etc.). Teaming arrangements may be inclusive of academic medical education programs or schools/consortiums that you have existing relationships with or could establish in a short period. Any responses involving teaming agreements should delineate between the work that will be accomplished by the prime and the work accomplished by the teaming partners;

18.  Applicable GSA Schedule number or other available procurement vehicle, if applicable;

19.  Date Submitted.

Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this sources sought synopsis is strictly voluntary. Responses will not be returned. No entitlements to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges to the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses, or the Government's use of such information or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and/or solicitation may be published on a government GPE. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). Responses must be submitted via email, no later than 3:00 pm EST on April 22, 2020. Questions shall be submitted by 5:00 pm EST, April 17, 2020.

Questions or comments to this Sources Sought Notice should be directed to the Contract Specialist, Brendon Moran, at brendon.moran@ihs.gov via e-mail only (phone calls/voice mail messages regarding questions will not be accepted and will not receive a response). Please indicate in the subject of your email: Sources Sought Notice/Request for Information Question Submission, 75H70420R00004.

Responses will not be returned and will not be accepted after the due date. The maximum number of pages for this submission is twenty five (25) pages total, inclusive of attachments, capability statements etc.

INTRODUCTION

This is a Sources Sought Notice/Request for Information. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of qualified respondents. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition strategy.

The applicable NAICS code is 561320 –Temporary Help, with a sub-classification of Temporary Staffing Services. The applicable PSC codes are Q701 – Specialized Medical Support and Q999 – Other Medical Services. The period of performance for this effort may be varied, but a 12-month BASE Period with additional Option Periods is anticipated. Additional information is available in the Statement of Objectives (SOO) attachment.

BACKGROUND

The Indian Health Service (IHS), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. The mission of IHS is to raise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level and assure that comprehensive, culturally acceptable personal and public health services are available and accessible to members of the 574 federally recognized Tribes across the United States. The Indian Health Service Strategic Plan for Fiscal Year 2019-2023 guides ongoing efforts to provide health care for American Indians and Alaska Natives across the United States. The plan addresses access to quality health care services, strengthening organizational capacity, and improving operations and communications across the system.

On March 13, 2020, the President declared the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant an emergency declaration for all states, tribes, territories, and the District of Columbia pursuant to section 501 (b) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5121-5207 (the “Stafford Act”). COVID-19 patients who admit to the hospital are likely to be in extreme respiratory distress and require 24 hour/7 days a week intensive medical care. IHS federally managed and tribally managed hospitals and other facilities lack an adequate supply of trained and available physicians, nurses, and other health professionals with foundational emergency medicine/critical care knowledge and skills. Specifically, IHS anticipates a need to augment the doctors, nurses, and other health professionals at many federally managed or tribally managed hospitals, with a mobile response team comprised of critical care medical, nursing, respiratory, and other experts that can provide direct patient care and teach frontline staff how to manage these complex critical care patients. IHS must do everything possible to stabilize and treat COVID-19 patients, and other critically ill patients, save lives, and stop the continued spread of COVID-19 across Indian Country.

As of 4/13/2020, IHS has at least 1,124 confirmed COVID-19 cases in all 12 IHS Service Areas, with the majority of confirmed cases in Navajo Area (636); Albuquerque Area (175); and Oklahoma City Area (76). Source: IHS daily Coronavirus dashboard.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this contract is to deploy critical care response team(s) on an as needed basis who will provide urgent lifesaving medical care to stabilize and treat patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 admitted to an IHS or tribal hospital. The critical care response team(s) shall prepare and train frontline health care staff at IHS and tribal facilities using evidence-based/best practices. Critical Care Response team(s) shall deliver clinical education using a combination of approaches, including primarily onsite hands-on “at the bedside” to teach clinical competencies, support physician, and nurse clinical decision making; and synchronous or asynchronous virtual learning (when time permits). The Contractor shall ensure that offsite critical care clinical experts are available by telephone and/or virtual for provider-to-provider consultation for onsite staff and IHS or tribal medical/clinical leadership to seek advice to manage critically ill patients on a 24 hour/7 days a week basis.

SCOPE

The scope of this contract includes identification, staffing and managing multi-disciplinary, expert and mobile critical care response team(s). Critical Care Response team members shall also conduct hands-on clinical education while treating patients, in order to train the frontline health care professionals at each hospital the necessary skills and clinical competencies to perform procedures to care for the management of COVID-19 patients, and other critically ill patients. The Contractor shall provide pre and post-engagement support to each location in the scope, which includes 24 hour/7 days a week provider-to-provider consultation, and virtual training, as needed. Other IHS or tribal locations may be added in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak in a community not identified on Attachment 1 that requires the mobile critical care response team to be on-site to provide performance.

RESPONSE INFORMATION

The response must clearly demonstrate that a company has the capacity, personnel, systems and expertise in identification, staffing and managing of multi-disciplinary, expert and mobile critical care response team(s). The response shall be inclusive of on-site and virtual medical staff training capabilities and approaches.

INSTRUCTIONS TO INDUSTRY

All capable parties are encouraged to respond. Responses must directly demonstrate the company’s capability, experience, and ability to marshal resources to effectively and efficiently perform the objectives described above. Generic capability statements are not sufficient and will not be considered compliant with the requirements of this notice.

The Government requests interested parties submit a written response to this notice which includes the following:

1.  Company name and a brief description of their company's business size (i.e. annual revenues and employee size);

2.  Company point of contact, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, DUNS number, www.SAM.gov registration status, and website address;

3.  Name, telephone number, and e-mail address of a company point of contact who has the authority and knowledge to clarify responses with Government representatives;

4.  Business status (i.e., Small Business, SDB, 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, WOB, American Indian/Alaska Native owned business, etc.).  Type of company is validated via the System for Award Management (SAM). All respondents must be registered on SAM located at https://www.sam.gov;

5.  Do you plan to cover specific IHS Areas, groups of facilities, or do you have the capability for all locations in the scope? See Attachment 1: IHS Federal and Tribally Operated Hospitals Summary;

6. Briefly discuss your organization’s process to match qualified and available healthcare professionals to the hospital(s) where the team may be assigned;

7. Identify in your response if your organization can provide staff onsite only, or combination of onsite and telephone/virtual services. What support is offered virtually, and are experts available afterhours?;

8. Discuss what capabilities you have to manage and coordinate getting the Critical Care Response team members from location to location on short notice;

9. Identify which labor categories would be dedicated to IHS or tribal locations that your organization is capable of serving;

10. Briefly discuss your company’s approach and experience conducting hands-on and or clinical education on a variety of critical care topics in a rural hospital locations staffed with physicians, nurses, and other health professionals;

11. IHS seeks organization’s input into topics /procedures that IHS or tribal staff who need to care for COVID-19 patients or other critically ill staff may need education. Specifically, has your organization developed any guidance, protocols, policies, procedures, etc. and/or or trainings on management of COVID19 patients? If yes, briefly describe what these are;

12. The government seeks input from organizations as to the minimum qualification requirements and acceptable standards that should be considered for a Critical Care Response Team (See Attachment 2);

13. In addition to required labor categories, Task Area 2.1 (SOO), and Attachment 2, Contractors may propose other labor categories that may be available under the contract as optional labor categories.  If these labor categories are proposed, provide the minimum qualifications for each position (A. License, B. Education, C. Experience, D. Certifications, E. Required Minimum Duties);

14. The government seeks input into a proposed Schedule of Deliverables to meet all Task Area requirements;

15.  Company’s relevant past performance information;

16.  The firm’s capability and experience in working with Government healthcare agencies;

17.  Anticipated teaming arrangements (i.e. prime contractor/subcontractor, joint venture, mentor-protege relationship, etc.). Teaming arrangements may be inclusive of academic medical education programs or schools/consortiums that you have existing relationships with or could establish in a short period. Any responses involving teaming agreements should delineate between the work that will be accomplished by the prime and the work accomplished by the teaming partners;

18.  Applicable GSA Schedule number or other available procurement vehicle, if applicable;

19.  Date Submitted.

Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this sources sought synopsis is strictly voluntary. Responses will not be returned. No entitlements to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges to the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses, or the Government's use of such information or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and/or solicitation may be published on a government GPE. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). Responses must be submitted via email, no later than 3:00 pm EST on April 21, 2020. Questions shall be submitted by 5:00 pm EST, April 17, 2020.

Questions or comments to this Sources Sought Notice should be directed to the Contract Specialist, Brendon Moran, at brendon.moran@ihs.gov via e-mail only (phone calls/voice mail messages regarding questions will not be accepted and will not receive a response). Please indicate in the subject of your email: Sources Sought Notice/Request for Information Question Submission, 75H70420R00004.

Responses will not be returned and will not be accepted after the due date. The maximum number of pages for this submission is twenty five (25) pages total, inclusive of attachments, capability statements etc.