Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) Health Improvement

The Program Support Center, Division of Acquisition Management, Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of the Indian Health Service (IHS), Division of Diaabetes Treatment and Prevention intends to solicit for offers for healthcare improvement consultant services. Required services include but are not limited to harvesting the knowledge gained and lessons learned from Special Diabetes Program for Indian's (SDPI) 333 community directed grants programs and 66 demonstration programs; collaborating on the development of documents to guide SDPI work in the area of continous quality improvement and measurement for improvement; providing guidance and assistance in the development of measures; assisting in the development of learning communities and resource centers to enhance Best Practice utilization and evaluation by SDPI grantees; incorporating improvement principles into future Request For Application (RFA) processes; and developing tools and training resources to enhance the success of future SDPI applicants. An interested organization should be a healthcare improvement organization with partnerships in academia. An interested organization must have researched and proven improvement tools that reduce adverse patient care events, improve clinical outcomes, increase patient and provider satisfaction, and improve healthcare financial performance. An interested organization must currently be providing quality improvement training to healthcare professionals nationally through a variety of methods such as conferences and web based continuing medical education. Interested parties will be evaluated on experience that includes working with American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities and the Indian Health Service, Tribal, & Urban programs (ITU) healthcare system such as, Resource and Patient Management System (RPMS), Clinical Reporting System (CRS), and iCare. More information is available at the IHS website: www.ihs.gov. Background: The mission of the IHS Division of Diabetes Treatment and Prevention (DDTP) is to develop, document and sustain a public health effort to prevent and control diabetes and related chronic diseases in AIAN people and communities. The DDTP employs collaborative strategies in the 12 IHS Areas through coordination of a network of Area Diabetes Consultants, model diabetes programs, and ITU SDPI grant programs. In addition, the DDTP is the primary point of contact for inter-agency and well as intra-agency communication on the prevention and treatment of diabetes and related chronic diseases in AIAN communities. The Special Diabetes Program for Indians is a $150 Million grant program that is administered by the DDTP. The program addresses the treatment and prevention of Type 2 diabetes and its related complications in AIAN communities. Over 300 ITU non-competitive grant programs have been funded through the SDPI grant program annually since 1998. In addition, 66 competitive grant programs have been funded annually since 2004 to address prevention of Type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease risk reduction. SDPI is currently authorized through FY2011. The IHS Director has expressed his desire to Tribal Leadership that this SDPI project align itself more closely with the Chronic Care Initiative (CCI) in incorporating improvement principles and practices into grantee activities for the prevention and treatment of diabetes in AIAN communities. The CCI grew out of the work done by the IHS DDTP over the past 3 decades. For the past three years, DDTP has worked closely with the CCI leaders. Having observed the value of CCI's integration of improvement principles into strategy and processes, the DDTP has made a commitment to incorporate improvement into SDPI plans for 2009 and beyond. Doing this will build on a very successful program and accelerate its progress and outcomes, resulting in improved diabetes care and prevention in Native communities. General Tasks in the Statement of Work: 1. Capture knowledge gained from SDPI grantees over the past 12 years 2. Provide guidance and assistance in the integration of improvement principles in DDTP/SDPI work 3. Assist in the development of - SDPI Learning Communities and - SDPI Resource Centers 4. Provide guidance and assistance with SDPI Request for Application 5. Develop improvement tools and training resources This procurement is offered for full and open competition and being solicited under FAR Part 15, Contracting by Negotiations. The period of performance shall be for one base year plus two 12-month option periods. It is anticipated that a Firm Fixed Price Contract will be awarded. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code is 541720 and 611430, with a small business size standard of $7.0 million. The solicitation will be available on or about June 16, 2009, with a tentative closing date of July 15, 2009.