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The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) is considering a project to perform a needs assessment evaluation of home dialysis in relevant areas and looking for opportunities for improvement. T... The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) is considering a project to perform a needs assessment evaluation of home dialysis in relevant areas and looking for opportunities for improvement. The project will be implemented using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code 611710 – Educational Support Services. The applicable classification code is B537 – Special Studies/Analysis – Medical/Health (Special Studies/Analysis). Background and Need: The mission of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Dialysis team in the Prevention and Response Branch has responsibility for defining and implementing evidence-based infection control practices in outpatient dialysis centers throughout the United States, including U.S. territories. The Dialysis team also responds to outbreaks of healthcare-associated infections or other adverse events in healthcare settings, and increasingly uses data to target and evaluate interventions. The U.S. experience with Ebola highlighted the critical importance of infection prevention programs. Several patients infected with Ebola who were treated in the United States—including one who transmitted the infection to two nurses— had developed acute renal failure requiring hemodialysis. The process of performing hemodialysis on these patients who typically have high titers of the Ebola virus in their blood introduced unique infection control challenges not previously encountered in this country. Nephrologists remain an important part of the teams that have provided and will provide care for patients infected with Ebola. Translating these lessons learned from Ebola, including the importance of core infection prevention practices such as use of personal protective equipment, not just to hospitals, but to all places where individuals receive healthcare, is a significant opportunity to increase the safety of all U.S. healthcare facilities. Dialysis facilities are a current focus of the Prevention and Response Branch given the data and recent concerns identified in that area. CDC is engaged in several initiatives aimed at improving infection control practices in dialysis facilities across the country. For several years, CDC has been working to promote uptake among dialysis providers of recommended practices to prevent bloodstream infections (BSI) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. CDC has developed a suite of publicly available prevention tools, training videos, and other materials that facilities can use to implement interventions aimed at dialysis BSI reduction. CDC has also supported reporting of BSIs and related infections in dialysis patients from >6,000 U.S. dialysis centers to a national surveillance system, giving dialysis providers real-time data to help them track progress toward reducing infections. CDC provides technical assistance to dialysis provider organizations, state and local health departments, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services End Stage Renal Disease Networks, and other partners working to educate dialysis healthcare personnel about infection prevention practices; improve and implement infection control best practices in dialysis centers; and reduce BSIs, HCV transmission, and other infections among dialysis patients. CDC currently needs support to find and deliver new and better strategies for achieving reductions in the overall burden of BSIs and other healthcare-related infections in dialysis patients and promote those findings through nephrology audiences by distributing findings, materials, and recommendations to nephrologists as influential leaders in 4 priority infection prevention areas. These areas are: 1) improving adherence to recommended infection prevention practices, 2) improving screening and detection of infections spread through contact and reduce the spread of these infections in dialysis settings, 3) increasing implementation of clinical protocols to ensure accurate detection and appropriate treatment of infections, and 4) improve collaboration between nephrologists and state and federal healthcare-associated infection programs. CDC has previously obtained support in this area using contracts, which has yielded the development of training materials and infection prevention-focused webpages, a Targeting Zero Infections webinar series, live educational sessions, audit tools and checklists, and a variety of publications and regular social media messaging which has pushed forward engaging strong nephrologist leaders to cultivate a climate that assures patient safety by preventing infections. Through these contracts, CDC has created a Nephrology Community which was brought together to implement infection prevention and describe best practices. This community represents a great resource for CDC identifying barriers and facilitators to adherence to CDC-recommended infection prevention practices. The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP), Prevention and Response Branch (PRB) is considering support to enhance infection control for all infectious threats in U.S. dialysis facilities to protect both patients and healthcare personnel by continuing to identify barriers and facilitators in the Nephrology Community and dialysis centers to promote prevention practices and protect the public from healthcare associated infections. The Government may procure a needs assessment evaluation of home dialysis in relevant areas and looking for opportunities for improvement. Specific objectives for such a project may include: Conduct a needs assessment evaluation with Human Factors Engineering (HFE) expert(s) with involvement from the Nephrologists Transforming Dialysis Safety (NTDS) Project Committee to identify barriers and facilitators that impact patient safety with active home dialysis programs to identify infection control and training challenges, barriers, and opportunities. Arrange and attend site visits for the HFE expert(s), at least one NTDS project committee member, at least one individual with relevant infection prevention expertise, and other relevant advisory staff to at least four facilities, including home hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis, not previously used for this type of evaluation. Establish and maintain an expert Nephrologists Transforming Dialysis Safety (NTDS) Project Committee workgroup consisting of experts across relevant disciplines to inform infection prevention and patient safety efforts. Develop, produce, and present two 60-minute educational webinars for the kidney community focused on infection prevention and patient safety among dialysis patients. Develop educational infection prevention and patient safety modules. Develop an educational infection prevention and patient safety training tool to target an audience of patients on dialysis. Vendor shall develop and trial an electronic responsive form (fillable by tablet or mobile device) based on Government infection control audit tools and chairside checklists to be utilized by patients and/or staff in dialysis facilities for: Catheter Connection and Disconnection Audit and Checklist (patients) and Hand Hygiene (staff and patients). The CDC is conducting this Sources Sought to identify Contractors who possess the capabilities to provide services as specified above and to determine their availability, capability and adequacy. The Government is especially interested in small business Contractors. Vendors who interested in this requirement and have performed similar projects, the Government requests the information shown below. This Sources Sought Notice is seeking small business Contractors qualified under NAICS code 611710 – Educational Support Services, which has a small business size standard of $16.5 million.[1] As permitted by FAR Part 10, this is a market research tool being utilized for informational and planning purposes. Vendor responses will assist the Government in the development of its acquisition strategy for a possible Request for Proposal (RFP), to be issued at a later date, and in determining whether any type of small business set-aside is possible for this procurement or whether full and open competitive procedures should be utilized. If full and open competition is ultimately pursued, responses to this synopsis will be used to aid in establishing small business subcontracting goals. This notice shall not be construed as an RFP or as any commitment or obligation on the part of the Government to issue a solicitation. The Government does not intend to award a contract based on this request, so proposals will not be considered. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this synopsis or any follow-up information requests. Response is strictly voluntary — it is not mandatory to submit a response to this notice to participate in any formal RFP process that may take place in the future. However, it should be noted that information gathered through this notice may significantly influence the Government’s acquisition strategy. All interested parties will be required to respond separately to any solicitations posted as a result of this Sources Sought Notice. Submission Instructions: Electronic responses via email are due no later than 2:00pm ET Tuesday, 17 March 2020 to Ms. Lee Catherine Kennedy at vhg0@cdc.gov and must include the information requested below. Responses greater than thirty single-spaced pages (including all attachments) will not be considered. Late responses will not be accepted. This is strictly market research and the Government will not entertain any questions. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. The Government appreciates Vendor interest and thanks Vendors in advance for responding to the Sources Sought Notice. Qualified Vendors shall submit a statement of interest on company letterhead demonstrating the Vendor’s qualifications to perform the defined work. Responses must be complete and sufficiently detailed to address the specific information. The documentation shall address, at a minimum, the following: Company Profile to include: Company name and address; Affiliate information: parent company, joint venture partners, and potential teaming partners; Year the firm was established and number of employees; Two Points of Contact (names, titles, phone numbers and email addresses); DUNS Number and CAGE Code, as registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at http://www.sam.gov/: Small Business designation/status (must correlate with SAM registration): _____ Small business _____ HUBZone _____ WOSB _____ 8(a) _____ VOSB _____ SDVOSB _____ Small Disadvantaged Business Bonding capability. List up to five similar projects previously performed. Include a brief statement as to why each project is relevant to this Sources Sought Notice and other relevant information such as any teaming or joint venture partners, whether the company was responsible for selling the SRECs, responsibility for interconnection studies and/or agreement. In addition, include proof of satisfactory past performance on the referenced projects. Recommended NAICS Code if different from the Government’s anticipated NAICS Code. Vendors should document rationale for recommended NAICS Code(s). Additional Comments: ___________________________________________________________ This information is true and correct to the best of my knowledge. ________________________________________ ___________________ Signature Date ________________________________________ Name [1] https://www.sba.gov/document/support—table-size-standards