Perinatal and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program for Natice Families

The Indian Health Service (IHS) is conducting a market survey to determine the availability and technical capability of businesses to provide a home-visiting program that includes a curriculum, in-person training, and technical assistance on the implementation and evaluation of the program to support that supports Office of Clinical and Preventive Services' (OCPS) authority and the responsibility to establish a national quality nursing program to meet the needs of American Indian/Alaskan Natives by providing a home-visiting nursing program through licensed, registered nurses that provide community health nursing services to the vulnerable and/or high risk patients. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR TECHNICAL OR COST PROPOSAL. This is a request for interested firms with the capability of providing the required services to submit a capability statement for market research purposes only. See attached Statement of Work. Background The Indian Health Service (IHS), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN). The provision of health services to members of federally-recognized tribes grew out of the special government-to-government relationship between the federal government and Indian tribes. This relationship, established in 1787, is based on Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, and has been given form and substance by numerous treaties, laws, Supreme Court decisions, and Executive Orders. The IHS is the principal federal health care provider and health advocate for AI/AN people and its goal is to raise their health status to the highest possible level. The IHS provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for AI/ANs who are members of 566 federally recognized Tribes across the U.S. There are twelve Area Offices [locations] within IHS, located in Aberdeen, South Dakota; Anchorage, Alaska; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Bemidji, Minnesota; Billings, Montana; Sacramento, California; Nashville, Tennessee; Window Rock, Arizona; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Phoenix, Arizona; Portland, Oregon; and Tucson, Arizona. The IHS Headquarters is located in Rockville, Maryland with some Headquarters programs located in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Dallas, Texas; Seattle, Washington; and Tucson, Arizona. In general, the health services provided to AI/AN people by the IHS include in-patient hospital care, out-patient clinic services, and home-visiting services which are provided by Community Health Representatives (CHRs) and Public Health Nursing (PHN). Under the IHS, the Office of Clinical and Preventive Services (OCPS) provides oversight and guidance for policy development, budget development and allocation for clinical, preventive and public health programs throughout the IHS. The Division of Nursing Services (DNS), under OCPS has authority and the responsibility to establish a national quality nursing program to meet the needs of AI/ANs; under DNS, the PHN program provides a home-visiting nursing program through licensed, registered nurses that provide community health nursing services to the vulnerable and/or high risk patients. PHN focuses on the health of populations, working with individuals, families and communities with an emphasis on prevention. PHN practices are targeted to improve patient outcomes and support health promotion and disease prevention (primary, secondary and tertiary prevention) chronic disease, elder care, communicable disease management, immunizations and maternal and child health (including prenatal, postpartum, newborn, school health and adolescent care) in AI/AN communities. Also under DNS, the CHR program provides community-based services through unlicensed, para-professionals. CHRs visit clients in their home, refer clients in need of care to the proper facility, educating community members on a variety of health hazards and behaviors related to alcohol use, cigarette smoking, poor eating habits and poor hygiene, collect patient specific data such as vital signs, blood glucose monitoring and provide transportation or arrange for police/ambulance transport in accident or emergency situations. Because IHS has public health nursing capacity whose scope of work already prioritizes maternal and child health and prevention, partnering CHRs with PHNs offers AI/AN communities and new mothers with greater access to home visiting services focused on maternal and child health. Currently, the CHR program does not have a structured home-visiting intervention for pregnancy to 36 months postpartum. A defined clear curriculum that can be utilized by CHRs would benefit whose purpose is to improve the mother's parenting knowledge and skills and to thereby improve the health outcomes of her infant or child. The goal is to purchase such a home-visiting intervention including the training, implementation and evaluation technical assistance. Purpose and Objectives of the Procurement The purpose of the procurement is to purchase a home-visiting program that includes a curriculum, in-person training, and technical assistance on the implementation and evaluation of the program. There is a need to establish a Maternal Child Health (MCH) curriculum that is relevant to CHR practice that would align with IHS priorities including encouraging breastfeeding. IHS needs to purchase a maternal and child health curriculum that can be used to train CHRs, and that is the basis for a home visiting program focusing on perinatal, infant, toddler and early childhood health from pregnancy through 36 weeks postpartum. Specific objectives of the requirement: - To implement a perinatal / early childhood home visiting program using a written curriculum organized into modules and lessons, and which includes teaching tools for the home-visitors; - To implement the home-visiting program at three reservation sites. - To team CHRs to implement the program and field test the program's effectiveness. - To document the visits within the Electronic Health Record (EHR), and allow the primary care providers access to the home-visitor's EHR documentation. - To improve perinatal, early childhood health outcomes and to improve parenting skills. - To purchase a home-visiting program that has already been field tested and has evidence of effectiveness in the following domains: o Improving parenting knowledge, skills and involvement; o Improving home safety; o Reducing maternal emotional and behavioral problems; o Decreasing infant and child emotional and behavioral problems; o Demonstrating the effectiveness of the home visitors in delivering the parental education intervention. - To purchase implementation and evaluation technical assistance for the home-visiting program. - To involve the home-visitors in implementing an on-going evaluation of the effectiveness of meeting the program objectives listed below. Specific Tasks - 30 curriculum sets (each of which includes lessons, lesson plans, teaching tools, and an implementation guide) which are the basis for a home-visiting intervention focused on improving perinatal and early childhood health outcomes and improving parenting and life skills - Train 10 people at the pilot site in the use of the Family Spirit home-visiting curriculum, the use of the evaluation tools and on program implementation; - Provide on-going site-specific technical assistance on the implementation of the home-visiting program; - Provide on-going technical assistance on the documentation of the CHR home-visitor notes within the EHR; - Provide technical assistance on all aspects of the program evaluation; - Analyze the home-visiting data and other evaluation data for the pilot site; - Four evaluation reports that include the data analysis and the evaluation of the pilot FSS contractors who believe they have the ability to satisfy all of the tasks outlined in the attached SOW are encouraged to submit a capability statement. The capability statements will be evaluated based on the information provided in relation to the objective and requirements outlined in the SOW. Capability statements shall include the following information: company name, address, point of contact, phone/fax/e-mail. The remainder of the capability statement should be tailored to the tasks outlined in the SOW and must demonstrate that similar work has been performed in the past. Please send capability statements via e-mail to Roshawn.majors@ihs.gov by August 28, 2013, 4:00 pm EDT. Responses by facsimile (FAX) WILL NOT be accepted. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for information solicited. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether sufficient small businesses possess the experience, expertise and qualifications to ensure competition under a set-aside acquisition. A determination by the Government not to compete this requirement as a set-aside based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.