Inactive

The purpose of this Sources Sought Notice is to accomplish market research pursuant to FAR Part 10, and to identify qualified and experienced businesses capable of and interested in providing the serv... The purpose of this Sources Sought Notice is to accomplish market research pursuant to FAR Part 10, and to identify qualified and experienced businesses capable of and interested in providing the services described in this notice. The Department of State welcomes the participation of qualified Joint Ventures and also encourages teaming to ensure an effective solution. Additionally, this notice seeks to determine if the services can be acquired using Federal Supply Schedules (FSS) or other Government Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC). This notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a(n) Invitation for Bid (IFB), Request for Quotation (RFQ), or Request for Proposal (RFP). Additionally, there is no obligation or commitment on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services described within this notice now or in the future. The Government does not intend to award a contract(s) based solely on the responses to this notice. Respondents are advised that the Government will not pay for information submitted in response to this notice, nor will it compensate respondents for any costs incurred in the development/furnishing of a response. The Government will not entertain telephone calls or questions for this notice. Please note that a decision not to submit a response to this notice will not preclude a vendor from participating in any future solicitation. 1. Background The mission of the Bureau of Medical Services (MED) is to safeguard and promote the health and well-being of America’s diplomatic community. MED administers the Department of State’s (Department or DOS) health care program mandated by the Foreign Service Act of 1980, develops, and implements medical policies for the Department, and advises the Secretary on global health care issues. MED supports the most globally distributed primary and occupational health care system for civilian employees and eligible dependents in the federal government. In over 220 locations around the world, MED supports a direct hire workforce of over 75,000 employees, and an embassy community with well over 150,000 persons. MED is comprised of a global network spread across over 200 Health Units (HU) and posts. As medical science advances and blends with emerging technology, MED must keep pace to provide a world-class standard of medical care in a resource-constrained environment. MED’s health care providers have a heterogeneous range of experience and training and many practice in medically austere diplomatic missions. The American health care model (and standards of care) assumes clinicians have ready access to medical specialists to collaborate with in the management of chronic or evolving medical conditions. Currently many medical clinicians operate without access to these resources that are readily available in the U.S. MED’s patient population’s medical needs range across the lifespan, including pediatrics, obstetrics, adults, and geriatrics. MED encounters almost every disease Americans have. Health care staff support patients worldwide, and as such, must be sensitive to language barriers and cultural differences. Within MED, the Directorate of Clinical Programs (MED/CP) protects the occupational health and safety of Department personnel required by the OSH Act of 1970, E.O. 12196, and 29 CFR §1960. Supportive functions include exposure assessments, medical surveillance and early detection/intervention, and provision of subject matter expertise to Department leadership. MED/CP oversees all clinical functions, services, and programs provided by the Bureau to Department employees, their eligible family members, and others participating in the medical program. Services performed for this contract currently fall under MED/CP. MED’s current telemedicine program focuses exclusively on rapid access to emergency care, where overseas providers can call in and talk to an Emergency Room (ER) physician (provider to provider) at a level one trauma center in the U.S., 24 hours per day, seven days per week (24/7). If the consultation is emergent, the ER physician will provide real-time guidance to the provider on the ground. If it is a non-emergent specialty consultation, the request is routed to the appropriate specialist and a written report is returned in 24 hours. Currently, there is a limited list of available specialties. Since the implementation of that program there have been 407 consults completed. MED seeks to expand its current telemedicine program by developing a Telehealth Center of Excellence that includes the medical, technical, and management resources necessary to provide an enhanced quality of medical care, drive operational efficiencies, and improve overall patient outcomes through the use of telehealth capabilities. This initiative supports MED’s Functional Bureau Strategy (FBS), Objective 1.2: Augment biomedical and diagnostic technological resources at missions in medically austere locations where local health services are inadequate or unreliably accessible in order to enhance the overall health of Mission personnel. The Telehealth Center of Excellence will be comprised of a Program Manager and necessary support staff, contractor support for the technical infrastructure necessary to support a robust telehealth capability where MED can provide health care services via remote consultations for various specialties, and a software platform from which it can provide these services. 2. Scope The Contractor shall provide real-time virtual specialist consultations for both emergent and non-emergent medical care. The Contractor shall provide MED with the ability to access all U.S. board certified specialties to support its patient population, including but not limited to neonates, pediatrics, adults, and geriatrics. For historical purposes, from 2017-2019, the majority of MED’s teleconsultations were for orthopedics and radiology inquiries. Other less frequent teleconsultations included: Peds Orthopedics Emergency Medicine (24/7) Neurology Dermatology Neurosurgery Gastroenterology Obstetrics and Gynecology Surgery Ophthalmology Neonatal Intensivist Pulmonary Podiatry Hematology/Oncology Oral Surgery ENT Pain Management Rheumatology Peds Endocrine Peds Oncology 3.0 Period of Performance The period of performance is anticipated to be for a one-year base period and four (4) one-year option periods. 4.0 Place of Performance It is anticipated that work will be performed: (1) on-site at a Department of State facility; (2) on-site at the Contractor’s facility; and/or (3) remotely. The primary place of performance for on-site performance at a Department of State facility is State Annex 1 (“SA-1”): Columbia Plaza 540 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20037-0000 5.0 Instructions 5.1 Responses Responses should be limited to ten (10) pages or less and be submitted as a Microsoft Word Document (.doc or .docx) or Portable Document Format (.pdf) to the Contracting Officer at KershnerK@state.gov and Contract Specialist at HarlowAL@state.gov. To the maximum extent possible, submit Non-Proprietary Information. All information received in response to this notice that is appropriately marked "Proprietary" will be handled accordingly. Submissions should include responses to the following categories: Company Profile, Recent/Relevant Experience, and Questions for Industry. 5.1.1 Company Profile A. Please provide the information below: Company Name: Company Point of Contact: Email: Phone: Prime Contractor Address: DUNS Number: CAGE Code, if applicable: Socioeconomic Status under any of the following NAICS Codes: 621111, 621112, 6213, 621399: Example: Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business; HUBZone; Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned; Service Disabled Veteran Owned; 8(a) Applicable GSA Schedule Contracts or other GWAC: Facility Clearance Level: Example: None, Secret, Top Secret B. Indicate whether the company intends to bid alone or arrange a team. If knowledge, skills, or other expertise is obtained from a teaming arrangement, vendors shall describe the goals and efficiencies gained through teaming. If a Joint Venture or teaming arrangement already exists, please identify the name, point of contact, and DUNS number for each team member. 5.1.2 Recent/Relevant Experience A viable interested party shall demonstrate, in any capability statement submitted, the company’s capabilities to meet the requirements identified in the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS). Examples of previous work or solution implementations provided in response to the subject areas below shall describe how they are relevant and applicable to the Telehealth Center of Excellence requirement. 1. Please describe your ability to provide virtual consultations via telehealth platform in the following specialty areas: Peds Orthopedics Neurology Dermatology Neurosurgery Gastroenterology Obstetrics and Gynecology Surgery Ophthalmology Neonatal Intensivist Pulmonary Podiatry Hematology/Oncology Oral Surgery ENT Pain Management Rheumatology Peds Endocrine Peds Oncology 2. Please describe your ability to provide virtual consultations via a telehealth platform outside of the above specified specialty areas. 3. Please describe your ability to provide urgent/emergent telemedicine consultations to the Department medical providers on a 24/7 basis. 4. Please describe the telehealth platform you utilize to conduct video/audio based telehealth consultations, including capabilities (e.g., patient scheduling, appointment reminders). Please specifically discuss health record exchange/integration capabilities. Please describe the platform’s reporting and dashboarding capabilities which may provide MED with a better view of its patient population’s use of this tool. 5. During the life of the anticipated contract, MED intends to implement an electronic health record (EHR) system, which includes an application for medical providers (Allscripts TouchWorks) and a patient portal (FollowMyHealth). Would your specialists be able to utilize the Department’s Allscripts TouchWorks system to provide the virtual consultations as specified in the draft PWS? Does your organization utilize any external telehealth solutions today to conduct virtual consultations? Please identify any risks and the impact, if any, to your organization if required to conduct virtual consultations via the Department’s system as opposed to your existing telehealth solution. 6. Please summarize your company’s experience providing large scale telehealth program support to external organizations. 7. Considering virtual consultations will be provided across multiple time zones, and urgent/emergent consultations will be required on a 24/7 basis, are you able to provide pricing by consultation specialty and/or type using your in-house telehealth platform? Are you able to provide pricing for consultations conducted on the Department’s EHR system? 6.0 Questions for Industry (Optional) In order to foster the maximum amount of competition, the Government would like to solicit industry feedback on how to better develop its requirements as well as any specific feedback on the Performance Work Statement. To do so, the Government welcomes responses to the following questions (responses to this optional section can be outside the 10-page limit. Response should be limited to three (3) pages or less): What additional information would your company find most helpful in order to develop and submit a technical and price proposal for this requirement for a best value tradeoff award? What types of performance standards and acceptable quality levels would potentially be appropriate for this type of requirement? Any other questions or concerns that might help the Government refine the PWS or RFP. Companies are welcome to provide any brief concluding remarks, as deemed appropriate. At this time, the Government will not entertain telephone calls or questions regarding this notice. The Government may choose to reach out directly to vendors after reviewing and evaluating the submissions.