Health Services Accreditation of primary care services in nursing stations where FNIHB is delivering clinical and client care across Canada.

This requirement is for the department of Health Canada.  Title:  Health Services Accreditation of primary care services in nursing stations where FNIHB is delivering clinical and client care across Canada. Background: Accreditation is a nationally and internationally recognized process to ensure a standardized level of quality in health planning, management and delivery of health services.  Health Canada has an important role to play in supporting quality improvement and safer healthcare across the continuum of services.  Branch accreditation funding over 5 years (2013-2018) supports all existing First Nations and Inuit community health centres (CHCs) currently in the accreditation process plus nine new CHCs each year, for a total of 45 new CHCs. In addition, funding was allocated to support 18 nursing stations (which can include both transferred nursing stations, as well as those where FNIHB is delivering services) to enter the accreditation process.  Scope:  The objective of this contract is to support nursing stations (and the respective Regional Office) where FNIHB is delivering clinical and client care in remote and isolated settings across Canada to improve the quality of the health services being delivered, by registering them in an accreditation process.  It is anticipated that the first of these nursing stations to begin accreditation will be up to three (3) non-transferred (i.e. where FNIHB is responsible for the delivery of clinical client care services) nursing stations located in Little Red River Cree Nation, Alberta (Fox Lake, Garden River, and John D’Or).  The focus of accreditation will first be on the Alberta region, up to three (3) nursing stations, with other regions to follow into the accreditation process where FNIHB is providing clinical and client care services.  The FNIHB-delivered, clinical and client care services that will require accreditation are considered essential services for remote and isolated First Nations communities and are identified by service level. These levels are used to priortize patient care requirements and patient care processes, workload and resources.  Triage Services determines if the client requires urgent or emergent care, or if they can wait to be scheduled within the facility’s operating hours  Level 1 – Emergency Resuscitation and Stabilization with Coordination for Evacuation

services required to address urgent conditions that go beyond competencies and resources of the on-site team necessary to urgently stabilize the patient and make arrangements for rapid evacuation examples of conditions under this level – acute cardiac disorders, premature labour, major trauma, etc.

Level 2 – Emergency Ambulatory Care Services

urgently required care for a condition-specific single visit, provided on an out- patient basis provision of service is based on stable vital signs and predictability of outcomes for conditions limited in duration, which do not require specialized tests to confirm diagnosis examples of conditions under this level – traumatic wound care with lacerations requiring suturing, dental emergencies, uncomplicated acute urinary tract infections, etc.

Level 3 – Outpatient - Non-urgent Services (scheduled or walk-in)

episodic, non-urgent care provided on an outpatient basis to treat conditions that do not need to be managed urgently, but would be more reasonably treated on-site rather than transporting the patient to provincial service

minimum services for communities over 4 hours driving distance from a provincial treatment facility include: health assessments; primary reproductive care; primary mental health; initial diagnosis and treatment of chronic psychiatric illness; communicable diseases outbreak management and treatment; management of minor and complex episodic illness and injuries; initial diagnosis and treatment of chronic disease; oral health prevention, promotion, diagnosis and treatment; treatment adjustment of unstable clients with chronic disease/monitoring of stable chronic conditions; coordination and referral to health services not offered in the community, with provincial services; coordination of access to diagnostics; coordination of return for patients who were hospitalized or treated outside the community

Estimated Value:  The total cost to Canada resulting from call ups against the Standing Offer must not exceed the sum of $90,000.00 ($30,000 per nursing station) from the award of the Standing Offer up to March 31, 2017 inclusive (Applicable Taxes and travel included) and $180,000.00 in each of the three one year option periods should they be exercised. The Offeror must not perform any work or services or supply any articles in response to call ups which would cause the total cost to Canada to exceed the said sum, unless an increase is so authorized.  Ownership of Intellectual Property:  The Contractor Will Own Intellectual Property Rights  Security Requirement:  SECURITY REQUIREMENT FOR CANADIAN SUPPLIER: PSPC FILE # 1000180167 1. The Contractor/Offeror must, at all times during the performance of the Contract/Standing Offer, hold a valid Designated Organization Screening (DOS), issued by the Canadian Industrial Security Directorate (CISD), Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC).  2. The Contractor/Offeror personnel requiring access to sensitive work site(s) must EACH hold a valid RELIABILITY STATUS, granted or approved by CISD/PSPC.  3. Subcontracts which contain security requirements are NOT to be awarded without the prior written permission of CISD/PSPC.  Compliant bid responses will be eligible for sponsorship into the Industrial Security Program of PWGSC, as this Standing Offer is likely to result in one or more Call-Ups that contain a Government of Canada security requirement. Respondents MUST indicate if they desire this sponsorship in their cover letter, in order to initiate the sponsorship process.  Mandatory Requirements: M1 The Offeror must provide a resource for each of the following categories:

Project Manager Expert Support/Specialist Support Assistant Technical/IT Educator/Trainer

1.6 On-Site Surveyor/Reviewer  Each of the above resources must demonstrate that they have a minimum of two (2) years experience working for an accreditation body providing accreditation services relevant to the Canadian First Nations context; and that the service has been provided in First Nations/Inuit communities.  Experience must be in month and years and cannot overlap. M2 The Offeror must demonstrate that they offer a health services accreditation program that has cultural relevance to the Canadian First Nations context; and that the program has been provided in First Nations/Inuit communities. The Offeror must provide examples demonstrating cultural relevance in their accreditation program such as culturally adapted language within their standards, a focus on community needs, the inclusion of traditional health services as part of the accreditation process, the involvement of Band/Council, etc.  The Offeror must also provide the following information for two (2) separate organizations where their accreditation program has been/is currently being provided: 1) Name of the community and/or organization in which the service was/is being provided; 2) Name, address, e-mail and phone number for a reference within the organization; 3) Brief description of the accreditation program that was/is being provided; 4) Start date of the delivery of the accreditation program within the organization.  Please note – references for accreditation programs must be entities other than Health Canada/PHAC. Note: Health Canada reserves the right to check references by contacting one or all of the references provided. Health Canada also reserves the right to reject a bidder should one or more of the references provided not be available within one week from completion of bid evaluation and if in checking references they do not confirm the resources work experience and information provided by the bidder. M3 The Offeror must offer a health services accreditation program that includes standards that are relevant to clinical and client care services in remote nursing stations.  The Offeror must provide examples of actual standards documents from their accreditation program that could relate specifically to clinical and client care services in remote nursing stations. M4 The Offeror must provide documentation demonstrating that they are accredited by ISQua (the International Society for Quality in Healthcare). M5 The Offeror must provide demonstrated evidence that their Standards are evidence based, reflective of current best practices, and are developed with opportunity for input from stakeholders. Examples that would demonstrate compliance include Terms of Reference documents for standards development/advisory groups, consultation and implementation planning documents, evidence of research into best practices within the field, etc. Selection Methodology:  To be declared responsive, a bid must:

comply with all the requirements of the bid solicitation; and meet all mandatory criteria;

Bids not meeting a) or b) will be declared non-responsive.  The responsive bids will be ranked in descending order based on lowest cost.  A bid must comply with the requirements of the bid solicitation and meet all mandatory evaluation criteria to be declared responsive. The responsive bid with the lowest Total Bid Price (TBP) will be recommended for award of a Standing Offer Agreement.  Enquiries regarding this Request for Proposals are to be submitted in writing to:  Donna Pettit Donna.pettit@hc-sc.gc.ca