National Cancer Institute's Contact Center

THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT, NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. A SOLICITATION DOCUMENT WILL NOT BE ISSUED AND PROPOSALS WILL NOT BE REQUESTED. The National Cancer Institute (NCI), Office of Acquisitions intends to modify the current Statement of Work with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) to provide enhanced access to and utilization of smoking cessation services to the public. The purpose of this activity is to support the significant expansion of access to evidence-based cessation services at the local, state, and federal levels through the use of existing and emerging technologies including enhanced access to and utilization of Quitline Services. In 2004, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and NCI created the National Network of Tobacco Cessation Quitlines with CDC providing funding to states for their quitline counseling services and NCI establishing and managing the national portal (1-800 QUIT NOW), a toll-free number which routes callers to their state quitline. In fiscal year 2012, several federal initiatives are planned that will likely dramatically increase calls to the 1-800-QUIT NOW number from tobacco users seeking help with quitting. Enhancing capacity at the NCI quitline, will assist CDC in meeting demand expected during increased promotion of 1-800 QUIT NOW. NCI through its Contact Center (Cancer Information Service or CIS) will provide increased cessation counseling services that will cover surges in calls to 1-800-QUIT NOW resulting from CDC's national promotions. The CDC recently completed its highly successful "Tips Campaign" that resulted in increased volumes of calls to the 1-800-QUIT NOW number. The goal of this modification is to permit NCI's contact center to assist with excess call volume during another planned promotion campaign. The contract requires that the Contractor shall: - Provide trained, capable, well-qualified staff to respond to smoking cessation inquiries on NCI's Smoking Cessation Quitline (1-877-44U Quit) and overflow calls from states receiving call surges as a result of promotion. - Hire and train supervisors who are competent to perform supervisory functions that ensure services meet performance standards as outlined in the contract Statement of Work. - Provide all necessary supervisory, technical, and administrative support to meet planning, implementation, operation, and management requirements of the contract. - Complete data collection required for client assessment, and records of client interaction. - Provide information on smoking cessation methods and counseling to assist clients in kicking their habit, including information on smoking cessation medications. Statutory authority: 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1), as set forth in FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii), only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Contractor is uniquely qualified by virtue of its continued performance over previous contracting cycles and in the current contract has met all interim performance standards as required in the Statement of Work. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) has a staff of over fifty (50) Information Specialists and nine (9) supervisory staff to manage the Information Specialists. In addition, NCI recently acquired new systems to support CIS operations providing enhanced support to CIS activities, including provision of smoking cessation services in English and Spanish. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is about to complete activities funded through ARRA which enhanced its abilities to provide smoking cessation services. During this time, staff have learned to use updated quality performance standards and tools especially developed to ensure quality of smoking cessation services. The Contractor has demonstrated exceptional ability to adapt to the new tools and standards while training and acclimating the staff to their new positions. In addition, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is the only source that can provide this service for the following reasons: - The main purpose of the proposed contract action is to permit the NCI's Contact Center to assist the CDC with temporary excess call volumes as a result of paid advertising promotion of the 1-800-QUIT NOW services provided by the states. Once the promotion is over, it is anticipated that volumes should return to normal levels and the surge in volume will wane. For this reason, it is not efficient for the Government to hire a new Contractor for short term services. o The FHCRC CIS has staff already trained and is already providing smoking cessation assistance to the public. Hiring a new Contractor would result in delay in a start up phase and training for a new Contractor and would generate duplicative costs and a potential loss in participants. - The current staff is very knowledgeable with NCI cessation resources. While these resources are available to the general public, the CIS staff already understands the properties of each resource and how they would meet the particular needs of individual smokers, based on counseling strategies learned in their training. This would be a major part of new Contractor start up training. - CIS staff at FHCRC understands the quitting process and staff have been trained to help counsel and advise participants who are experiencing difficulties encountered when trying to quit. - FHCRC CIS staff is informed and trained regarding the range of smoking cessation medications and can discuss them with smokers who have questions. The additional costs associated with training new staff and would have a negative impact on the current participants enrolled in this service and cost the Government additional funds for training. - Current staff has experience in required record-keeping needed to track client interactions - Recompetition of this requirement would be duplicative and services to be provided would likely not reach competency for many months with a new Contractor. The unique qualifications of the Contractor include the following: 1) The Contractor has an experienced management team with years of service to the NCI in providing direct response to the public. 2) The staff is well trained in the specific procedures of data collection required for the CIS contract. 3) The contract staff is fully trained in the procedures for and use of the NCI databases and resources needed to fulfill this function. 4) Contract staff have had security/background checks to ensure safe access to Government databases, via VPN access, needed to implement this work. However, if there are sources who feel they are able to perform the requirement, they must respond by submitting information (5 page limit) within 15 days of publication of this synopsis. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The capability statement will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Overnight deliveries should be mailed to the National Cancer Institute, Office of Acquisitions, Catherine Muir, 6120 Executive Boulevard, Suite 600, Room 6003 MSC 7192 Bethesda, Maryland 20852. No collect calls or facsimile transmissions will be accepted. Respondents may submit their capability statements via email in addition to two (2) hard copies.