Survey Services - Modification to Sources Sought
The Department of Veterans Affairs, Birmingham VA Medical Center has a requirement for the survey services as describes below. The Department of Veterans Affairs has embraced the patient-centered medical home, termed the Patient-Aligned Care Team (PACT) in VA, an approach that promises primary care that is comprehensive, patient centered, team-based, and able to sustain a relationship over time. For patients who are homeless, these ideals have often proven difficult to meet. Little is known about the particular aspects of service design and delivery that assure a good primary care experience for homeless patients. Since 2012, VA has ambitiously piloted homeless-tailored primary care service design by establishing over 60 Homeless PACTs. This study uses patient surveys to asses if homeless-tailored primary care programs offer a superior patient experience. Evidence from this study will help to guide the future of primary care delivery for homeless and formerly homeless veterans within VA.
The contractor shall provide services in support of this study, Primary Care Quality and Homeless Service Tailoring (PCQ-HoST), involving recruiting, enrolling, surveying, and compiling survey result from homeless experienced patients. Contractor shall provide support and all resources necessary to accomplish the tasks described below.
Contractor must manage the mailing of recruitment materials to prospective participants; recruit and enroll participants in compliance with the cIRB-approved methodology; track all sent and returned mailings and responses; have the ability to utilize public records to update address and phone numbers, facilitate data collection through mailed surveys; compile collected data into a single cleaned SAS dataset. For veterans that complete the survey, the contractor shall purchase, mail, and track gift cards sent to participants.
Homelessness subject knowledge shall be provided by subject matter experts (SME) identified by VA. Routine study operations shall include weekly conference calls to discuss and resolve problems, submission of weekly tracking and management reports, and ad hoc conversations and emails concerning progress and challenges.
VA owns the questionnaires, databases, forms, information, statistics, and contact information for Veterans including personal identifiers, computer tapes and other electronic media for data storage, computer programs, draft and final versions of reports, project phone numbers, all data, and other items generated by this contract. VA will ultimately maintain and house the repository and the database. The VA Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), together with other VA staff, shall make unannounced and announced visits to monitor contractor operation on-site. The contractor shall not perform or provide any inherently governmental functions. Publication of research results by firms providing contracted services to VA is governed by the terms of the contract and with the provisions of VA Handbook 1200.19, along with respect to review and acknowledgment of VA support. At no time shall the contractor publish, present, contribute or author any results of services provided by this contract without the approval of the Contracting Officer and the Study Chair.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Contractor must have current knowledge of Federal and VA privacy, data security, and risk management procedures and practices, including, but not limited to FISMA and VA Handbook 6500.
Contractor must have or be capable of acquiring prior to performance period current VA Certification and Accreditation (C&A) of its information system.
Contractor must have in place or be capable of acquiring prior to performance period a current Temporary Authority to Operate (TATO) and secure and maintain a VA Authority to Operate (ATO) covering its information system following a VA-sanctioned Certification and Accreditation (C&A) process.
Contractor must have experience with locating, interviewing, and conducting both mail and telephone surveys on a wide range of topics.
Contractor must have experience with surveys involving persons who are nationally dispersed.
Contractor must have experience with surveys involving vulnerable or marginalized populations.
Contractor must have experience with health survey development and design.
CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS
The success of this project is highly dependent upon locating, recruiting, and enrolling participants, and the proper collection and compilation of survey data. The requirements that are crucial to achieving the aims of the pilot project are listed below.
Veterans' personal identifying information is of paramount importance to VA and it must be protected at all times. Contractor must demonstrate that current federal FISMA, VA data security, patient privacy, and risk management requirements are incorporated throughout the project.
Contractor must have demonstrated success in reaching goals when working with similar projects. The contractor shall have a strong track record in quality control monitoring. The contractor shall demonstrate experience in preparation and delivery of electronic data files that meet high standards of accuracy.
The contractor shall have proven abilities to print the required materials, manage mailings, and manage and process study tracking data for a large geographically dispersed population of homeless Veterans.
The contractor shall demonstrate the ability to locate mobile populations such as homeless Veterans and demonstrate an ability to achieve high participation rates.
The contractor shall present a plan for project organization and staffing that demonstrates a knowledge of effective organizational structure, management, and how best to utilize key and other personnel. The contractor shall have the personnel, equipment, material, supplies, forms, and systems of computer programs to manage this project.
The contractor shall have the office space and equipment to conduct a project of this size, including the space to accommodate a significant amount of questionnaires, stationery, data, equipment, and other materials, over the course of the contract period of performance.
The contractor shall demonstrate experience in developing, designing, and formatting of paper questionnaires, so as to maximize response rates, maximize ease of use, and minimize error rates.
Contract staff shall undergo background security investigations as required by the VA. All contract staff are required to undergo a NACI low level background investigation.
Any contractor and/or subcontractor retained to do work for VA under this contract that requires the access, use, storage, modification, or transmission of VA Sensitive Personal Information (SPI) must follow and adhere to the security controls, enhancements, compensating controls, protocols, regulations, and VA directions as the Contracting Officer (CO) shall direct, including, but not limited to those derived from the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), OMB Circular No. A-130, and VA Handbook 6500/6500.6. The contractor must report any data breach according to the protocols and timeframes in HB 6500.
If any contractor/sub-contractor retained to do work for VA under this Contract requires access, use, etc., of VA SPI as aforesaid, and if an actionable data breach occurs because of the contractor/subcontractor s acts, omissions, or negligence in following the VA-directed security controls, enhancements, compensating controls, protocols, and/or measures, including, but not limited to the sources above, the contractor/subcontractor is further subject to the statutory requirement to assess liquidated damages against contractors and/or subcontractors under 38 U.S.C. B'5725 in the event of a breach of Sensitive Personal Information (SPI)/Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Said liquidated damages shall be assessed at $37.50 per affected Veteran or beneficiary. A breach in this context includes the unauthorized acquisition, access, use, or disclosure of VA SPI which compromises not only the information s security or privacy but that of the Veteran or beneficiary as well as the potential exposure or wrongful disclosure of such information as a result of a failure to follow proper data security controls and protocols.
An intentional or negligent failure to follow prescribed data/personal information security controls, enhancements, or protocols, or the misrepresentation that said controls, etc. are implemented or followed may be considered a material breach of this contract, subject to Termination for Cause or Convenience at the Government s sole discretion.
General Tasks:
1. Purchase prepaid ($1 bill) and post-paid ($10 gift card) incentives to be sent to sample/respondents. Provide galley proofs to the research team of all materials to be mailed out.
2. Mail advance letter to 15,272 potential respondents (expected total respondent n = 6,182). Have capacity to address and track opt-out phone calls, update phone numbers and mailing addresses.
3. Mail questionnaire with return envelope (postage pre-paid) and a $1 bill to 15,272 potential respondents.
4. Mail postcard reminder to non-respondents.
5. Mail a second questionnaire with return envelope (postage pre-paid) to approximately 10,538 non-respondents.
6. Program a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI Questionnaire)
7. Conduct approximately ~750 30-minute interviews. (N may vary either up or down depending on mailed response rate)
8. Mail thank you letter with a $10 gift card incentive to 6,182 respondents.
9. Clean and prepare final dataset from data resulting from completed questionnaires.
The anticipated contract will be firm fixed price. This notice is not a request for competitive proposals, however; any responsible source who believes it is capable of meeting the requirement may submit a capability statement to the contracting office no later than Monday 5/1/2017 at 12 PM, EST. Interest/capability statements may be sent to Lynn Portman at lynn.portman@va.gov and should include company name, address, point of contact, business size, SDVOSB/VOSB status, and description on how the vendor can meet the requirements. No telephone responses will be accepted. This notice is to assist the Government in determining sources only. A solicitation is not currently available. If a solicitation is issued, all interested parties must respond to that solicitation announcement separately from the responses to this announcement.
Lynn Portman
lynn.portman@va.gov
lynn.portman@va.gov
