Q -- COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR ER PHYSICIAN SERVICES

Notice Date

November 7, 2001

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Medical Center, 500 Foothill Blvd., Salt Lake City, Utah 84148

ZIP Code

84148

Solicitation Number

660-005-02

Response Due

December 5, 2001

Point of Contact

Richard A. Garrard

E-Mail Address

Click here to contact the contracting officer via (Richard.Garrard@med.va.gov)

Description

This is an amendment to previous synopsis for RFP 660-005-02. The solicitation is hereby issued as a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR 12.6, utilizing SAP procedures as prescribed in FAR 13.5, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. If it appears the entire synopsis/solicitation is not visible, please contact Contracting Officer by email. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 97-27. The North American Industry Classification System Code is 621111. CONTRACT LINE ITEMS: CLIN 0001, BASE YR: Furnish physicians to staff the ECU area, 24 hrs per day, 365 days/yr, 366 days/yr for leap yrs, in accordance with the contract requirements below: 12 MO at ______/month. CLIN 0002, BASE YR: Provide physician direction and leadership for ongoing quality management in accordance with contract requirements below: 12 MO at ______/month. CLIN 0003, OPTION YR 1: Furnish physicians as described above: 12 MO at ______/month. CLIN 0004, OPTION YR 1: Provide physician direction as described above: 12 MO at ______/month. CLIN 0005, OPTION YR 2 Furnish physicians as described above: 12 MO at ______/month. CLIN 0006, OPTION YR 2 Provide physician direction as described above: 12 MO at ______/month. CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS: 1. Furnish physician to staff the Emergency Care Unit 24 hours per day, 365 days per year (366 days/leap year), including weekends and all legal holidays observed by the facility. The average patients per day is approximately 90. 2. A Contractor Physician Group employee must be present at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System (VASLCHCS) and must be actually performing the required services for the period specified in the contract, or the contract cost will be decreased accordingly during each billing cycle. 3. A record-keeping system of contractor hours worked shall be established as described below. Payments for any leave, including sick leave, holiday or vacation time, are the responsibility of the contractor. 4. Continuity of services must be maintained to maximum degree possible; hence, substitution of Contractor physicians shall be limited to urgent/emergent absences of approved, assigned providers. If a contract physician cannot complete an assigned shift, the contractor shall provide replacement physician coverage within 60 minutes of notification by the VASLCHCS. 5. Physician on duty under terms of this agreement shall evaluate all individuals requesting care at the facility, including psychiatric care. Physician on duty will determine appropriate treatment and/or disposition, and determine whether specialty consultation or admission to the hospital is necessary. When admission is indicated, the physician on duty will notify the appropriate admitting (in-house) physician of the patient and their condition/status. 6. Services shall exceed the level of expertise normally expected of a general practitioner. If any unusual and/or specialty treatment is necessary, physician shall contact appropriate medical staff physician on call for consultation, or refer patient to another institution as indicated by the facility's policies. Specialist consultation shall be made only after clinically indicated workup and diagnostic testing and/or evaluation. 7. The physician on duty shall be responsible for supervising resident physicians, physician assistants, medical students, or other clinical trainees from the VASLCHCS and UUHSC, to teach them principles and practices of providing acute care and support and oversee them as they take on the responsibility (appropriate to level of training and/or licensure) of providing care. a. A standardized curriculum of teaching shall be developed by contractor, assuring residents and all trainees rotating through the ECU receive training/education on all critical clinical and patient management issues likely to be seen in an emergent/urgent care setting. It is also expected that active teaching occur on a continuing basis through interaction with trainees who are supervised in direct delivery of care to patients coming to the ECU for services. 8. The physician on duty under the terms of this agreement shall be willing, if necessary, to medically respond to cardiac arrests inpatient episodes are requested by the medical staff, unless a greater or concurrent emergency in the ECU area precludes his/her availability. They shall function as back-up attending staff to the first response medicine admitting team, only for so long as Medicine or Intensive Care staff are not available. Physicians on duty are not required under the terms of this agreement to respond to routine or non-acute inpatient care of scheduled admissions. 9. All medical records shall be chart dictated and be kept current and complete in accordance with the policies of the VASLCHCS and VA. 10.VASLCHCS will provide the following at no cost to the contractor: a. Have available expendable/non-expendable supplies and equipment deemed necessary to proper operation of the ECU. b. Have present and available sufficient professional, technical, and non-technical facility personnel for the proper functioning of the ECU area during the period the contract physician is on duty. Included in personnel provided are security police and fire protection. c. Copies of VASLCHCS Policies, by-laws, Rules and Regulations, and instructions for the terms of this agreement, to physicians designated by the contractor. d. VA forms and documents required in the provision of physician services as the facility and instructions as to their proper use. e. Dictation service through which medical records can be dictated. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: Contractor agrees, in accordance with the terms and conditions stated herein, to furnish to and at the VASLCHCS, the services specified and at the prices specified in this contract: 1. A list of all contractor-furnished physicians must be made available to the facility for credentialing and privileging within 60 days of contract award. 2. Other necessary personnel for the operation of the services contracted for at the VA will be provided by VA at levels mutually agreed upon which are compatible with the safety of the patient, personnel, and with quality medical care programming. 3.The services required in this agreement shall be performed in accordance with established principles and ethics of the medical professional established by the AMA, ACEP, JCAHO, Veterans Health Administration regulations, and medical staff by-laws. 4. The contracted physician group would be expected to develop and maintain on-going quality management programs, to assess and improve the quality of the patient care delivered through the ECU, and the quality of the teaching provided by the physicians in the ECU. Responsibility for achieving and maintaining standards defined by various certifying organizations, such as the JCAHO, the Residency Review Committee, and the Department of Veterans Affairs would reside with the contractor. This would require the specific identification of one physician or his/her designee as the Medical Director of the ECU. This position would likely require 20-30% administrative time. Standards shall be provided to the Medical Group in advance. 5. Services to be performed by the contractor will be under the direction of the Manager, Primary Care, VASLCHCS. QUALIFICATIONS: a. Personnel assigned by the contractor to perform the services described in this contract shall be licensed in any state in the United States or in the District of Columbia. The qualifications of such personnel shall also be subject to review by the VASLCHCS Chief of Staff and approval by the VASLCHCS Director. The time frame required for such approval is 6 weeks from the time all required documentation is submitted. b. The contracted physician group members shall have a current, full and unrestricted license to practice medicine in any state; appropriate credentialing and privileges through the VASLCHCS; and will maintain clinical appointments on the faculty of the University of Utah School of Medicine, in the Departments of Medicine, Family and Preventative medicine, or Surgery. c. Physicians who have current, full and unrestricted licenses in one or more states, but who have, or ever had, a license restricted, suspended, revoked, voluntarily revoked, voluntarily surrendered pending action or denied upon application will not be considered for the purposes of this contract. d. All physicians shall be board certified or have completed a three-(3) year residency program in Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, or Family Practice and be currently certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) or equivalency. e. All physicians shall provide verifiable evidence of clinical competence to include experience in dealing with psychiatric emergencies. This information must be obtained from at least 3 professional and authoritative reference sources knowledgeable of the physician's mental and physical health status, professional conduct and professional qualifications consistent with the duties required under the terms of the contract. f. All physicians shall provide verifiable evidence of all educational and training experiences including any gaps in educational history. g. All physicians shall be citizens of the United States. If citizenship was acquired through naturalization, evidence of citizenship must be provided. h. All physicians shall be responsible for abiding by the Facility's Medical Staff bylaws, rules, and regulations that govern medical staff behavior. i. Physicians appointed under the terms of this agreement shall be considered members of the facility Medical Staff. As such, they are subject to the same requirements and standards of care. Staff in this category may be appointed to committees as appropriate, but shall not be required to attend meetings of the Medical Staff. PERSONNEL POLICY: The contractor shall be responsible for protecting the personnel furnishing services under this contract. To carry out this responsibility, the contractor shall provide the following for these personnel worker's compensation; professional liability insurance; health examinations; income tax withholdings and social security payments. The parties agree that such personnel shall not be considered VA employees for any purpose and shall be considered employees of the contractor. VASLCHCS Monitoring/Recordkeeping: Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR) will designate appropriate VA personnel to monitor Contractor employee work hours/services through one or a combination of the following mechanisms: a. Departments being served will monitor Contractor employee work hours through time and attendance logs similar to VA staff positions, to ensure that services called for in the contract have been received by VA Medical Center. The COTR will be responsible for verifying contract compliance. Any incidents of Contractor noncompliance as evidenced by the monitoring procedures will be forwarded immediately to the Contracting Officer. b. The office of the Chief of Staff reviews monitoring data. An internal time-keeping form is maintained and reviewed for total number of hours worked per month against monthly average of hours. c. Documentation of services performed will be reviewed prior to certifying payment. COTR will perform periodic spot checks and document with the using service to ensure reports monitoring. VASLCHCS will pay only for services actually performed at VASLCHCS, and in strict accordance with the schedule of prices/costs shown in Section B. Contract monitoring and recordkeeping procedures will be sufficient to ensure proper payment and allow audit verification that services were provided. INVOICES: Monthly invoices will be processed as per instructions in the Notice of Award letter. DESIGNATION OF CONTRACT REPRESENTATIVE: Contractor will be advised in Notice of Award letter as to contract representative. QUALITY MANAGEMENT: All persons employed under this contract will be required to participate in the Medical Center's Quality Management program. This includes participation in the quality management activities of the contracting clinical area and furnishing evidence of continuous review of the quality of care provided to patients under this contract. Data will be provided by the contractor to Care and Service Center management through staff meeting minutes of other documented case review. EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD: FAR 52.212-2 Evaluation Commercial Items (Jan 1999) (a) The government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the government, price and other factors considered. EVALUATION CRITERIA: 1. TECHNICAL (4 copies of documentation required): a. Staffing and Scheduling: Describe location, organizational structure, key personnel, and management practices relevant to the work statement in this solicitation. b. Identify the number of physicians to be assigned to this contract work. c. Provide a list of qualified physicians intended to be utilized in the performance of this contract along with their present relationship with your group, and/or described the mechanism you will use to provide qualified physicians to perform the contract work. In both cases describe you capability to recruit adequate staffing to meet the requirements of this contract. d. Document ability to provide to the Contracting Officer within 30 days of contract award all relevant information required for the VA credentialing and privileging process for each physician to perform work under this contract. e. Provide documentation of the ability to begin performance upon completion of the VA credentialing and privileging process. f. Describe anticipated personnel turnover rate and how it might affect contract performance if additional credentialing and privileging of physicians is required during the contract period. g. Describe procedure for conducting ongoing evaluation of the quality and effectiveness of service provided. Describe quality assurance monitors that will be in place during contract performance. h Offeror shall describe how they intend to schedule qualified physicians to cover the required tours of duty. i. Describe location, capability, and availability of contract Person(s) who will ensure that all scheduled tours of duty are property filled by VA credentialed and privileged physicians. j. Describe the procedure and time frame for notifying the VA of the name of the physician assigned for each time period. Describe the contingency plan for covering for physician's schedule or unscheduled leave. EXPERIENCE(4 copies of documentation required): a. Provide detailed documentation of successful experience in the provision of physician staffing for Acute and Emergent Care for at least one continuous year in a minimum of two medical/health care facilities within the last two(2) years. At least one of these must be an accredited Level II or higher Emergency Room, and at leas t one must be a freestanding urgent care facility. b. Provide evidence of working knowledge of applicable JCAHO regulations pertaining to Level II Emergency Care Service. PAST PERFORMANCE(4 copies of documentation required): a. Identify existing or past contracts with terms and conditions the same as or similar to those in this solicitation. Include contract number, point of contact, and telephone number. b. Provide any information encountered during performance of those contracts that would have an adverse rating, and steps taken to correct the adverse rating. PRICE: Provide written pricing as per the CLINs listed above (2 copies required). EVALUATION NOTE: Technical and past performance, when combined, are substantially more important than price. Options. The Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s). A written notice of award or acceptance of an offer, mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful offeror within the time for acceptance specified in the offer, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the offer's specified expiration time, the Government may accept an offer (or part of an offer), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award. Full text of clauses and provisions are available at http://www.arnet.gov/ and Veterans Affairs Acquisition Regulations are available at http://www.va.gov/oa&mm/vaar. OFFERORS ARE REQUIRED TO INCLUDE A COMPLETED COPY of the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications -- Commercial Items ALT III (OCT 2000), with its offer. The following provisions apply to this acquisition: 52.212-1; 52.212-2, 52.217-8, 52.217-9, 52.237-7; 52.217-5. The clause at 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions -- Commercial Items (AUG 2000), applies to this acquisition with the following clauses added as addenda to the clause: 52.204-4, 52.224-1, 52.224-2, 52.225-3, 52.225-13, 52.225-16, 52.232-4, 852.270-4, 852.237-70, 852.270-1, 852.237-7 (which requires submission of certification of indemnification/liability insurance, consistent with the laws of the state of Utah). The clause at 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required To Implement Statutes or Executive Orders -- Commercial Items (MAY 1999), applies to this acquisition and the additional FAR clauses cited in the clause are: 52.219-8, 52.222-21, 52.222-26, Equal Opportunity, 52.222-35, 52.222-36, 52.222-37. Proposals are due no later than 1:00 p.m., local time, December 5, 2001. No solicitation document will be issued. Questions concerning this procurement shall be submitted to the contracting officer via e-mail or by facsimile at (801) 584-2506.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20011109/QSOL002.HTM (W-311 SN512545)