MK26-24 Public Health Emergency and Healthcare Preparedness Programs - Training and Exercise Coordination

The State of Utah Division of Purchasing, conducting the procurement through the Department of Health and Human Services, issued Request for Statements of Qualifications (RFSQ) MK26-24 for Public Health Emergency and Healthcare Preparedness Programs - Training and Exercise Coordination on March 25, 2026, with a deadline for submission of April 8, 2026. This professional services procurement seeks to award a four-year contract to a qualified vendor under Utah Procurement Code 63G-6a Part 15 to provide overall exercise coordination services. The primary deliverables and services include conducting a minimum of two exercises annually aligned with the CDC's Public Health Emergency Preparedness framework (covering chemical, radiological/nuclear, natural disaster, rural/frontier/tribal, and biological incidents), facilitating Hospital Preparedness Program exercises, supporting emergency preparedness training initiatives, developing after-action reports and improvement plans within 90 days of exercise completion, conducting integrated preparedness planning workshops annually, updating Utah's public health jurisdictional risk assessment with a new statewide assessment between July 1, 2028 and June 30, 2029, and updating the DHHS earthquake plan in collaboration with local, state, and federal partners. Vendor qualifications must include Utah residency, experience in public health emergency and healthcare preparedness, minimum five years following Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) standards, current FEMA Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP) certification, and minimum five years coordinating statewide exercises with DHHS, local health departments, hospitals, healthcare systems, and the Utah Department of Public Safety. Evaluation criteria consist of seven technical scoreable elements, each weighted at 14.3 percent, addressing emergency preparedness experience, hazard assessments, integrated preparedness planning workshops, after-action reports, audience-tailored communication, project outcomes, and multi-agency stakeholder management, with vendors required to achieve a minimum technical score of 980 points (70 percent of 1,400 total possible points) for proposal approval; pricing information must not be included in submissions, with compensation to be negotiated at fair and reasonable rates following vendor selection.

No set-aside designations, disadvantaged enterprise restrictions, or incumbent vendor information is specified in the procurement documents. Respondents must comply with Utah Code Annotated 63G-6a and Administrative Code R33, including anti-boycott provisions under UCA 63G-27, restrictions on forced labor products, and technology security requirements including FedRAMP or GovRAMP compliance for products processing state data. All work products, intellectual property, and deliverables created under the contract are owned by DHHS, while contractors retain rights to pre-existing intellectual property and background materials. Contractors must maintain commercial general liability insurance of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $3,000,000 aggregate, workers' compensation insurance, and HIPAA-compliant information security procedures with confidentiality protections for state data. The contract includes requirements for E-verify compliance for new employees, monthly invoicing with itemized cost statements categorized by task or project name, and records retention for six years post-payment. No specific award value or budget range is disclosed in the procurement documents, with the highest-ranked vendor selected for compensation negotiations determined to be fair and reasonable, and the state retaining the right to proceed with negotiations with the next highest-ranked vendor if negotiations with the top-ranked vendor are unsuccessful.