The Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency/U.S. Fire Administration (DHS/FEMA/USFA) intends to negotiate and award a purchase order on a sole source basis (IAW FAR 6.302) with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), located at 1750 New York Avenue, Washington, DC 20036. The safety and health of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) responders is a critical issue for both fire departments and third service EMS providers. Numerous EMS responders have died or have been injured on-duty. To deal with this critical issue, the United States Fire Administration (USFA) developed EMS Safety - Techniques and Applications (FA-144; January 1997): http://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa-141.pdf. Related to this, USFA developed the Guide to Developing and Managing an Emergency Service Infection Control Program (FA-112; March 1992, updated January 2002): http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa-112.pdf. Both of these documents have provided important information to EMS responders on critical health and safety topics. Since there has been significant changes and updates in EMS provider safety and health issues, including infection control, since the publications were released, they are no longer current and require updating. The purpose of this project is for the IAFF to continue research on the occupational health and safety of EMS providers to develop comprehensive and detailed information to update and revise the January 1997 edition of EMS Safety - Techniques and Applications (FA-144), and the January 2002 Guide to Developing and Managing an Emergency Service Infection (FA-112). The updated/revised publications are to be consolidated into one document to provide the most up-to-date, innovative and comprehensive information regarding EMS responder health and safety, including infection control for local-level EMS responders, Emergency Medical Services, and fire departments via print and web media. As part of this project, the contractor shall gather and analyze data and information on incidence of on-duty deaths and injuries of EMS responders both fire service and not-fire service EMS. The study shall examine both technological and operational mitigation of workplace/on-duty incidents of violence. It shall also provide examples of current best practices. The study shall be conducted without the requirement of obtaining an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) survey clearance approval. Additionally, the contractor shall not use any technical method for this project that would invoke Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) requirements. The development of the consolidated/updated publication shall be coordinated with other EMS national-level organizations, especially the National Association of EMT's (NAEMT). The study shall incorporate findings from other IAFF/USFA emergency responder health and safety studies and fire service projects. IAFF shall establish a fire service communications section that deals with EMS responder health and safety in the Health and Safety part of their website to expand outreach on the findings of this study. IAFF's website is well known and utilized among the fire and emergency services community to access information on fire service operational safety. In addition to being added to IAFF's website, this information will also be placed on USFA's and DHS Office of Health Affairs web site. IAFF shall develop innovative outreach efforts that will include presenting information on this project at major national level fire services conferences, including the IAFF's John P. Redmond Symposium/Dominick F. Barbera EMS Conference. IAFF shall also develop an outreach web page on their web site as well as utilize other available resources and tools to perform outreach. Findings and information resulting from this project may be shared with Federal and national-level consensus standards organizations for the development of relevant/related standards. All sharing of information shall be coordinated with the USFA Contracting Officer's Representative (COR). The contractor must be able to meet core capabilities required for this requirement as follows: • Expertise in gathering and analyzing data and information on incidence of workplace death, injury and illness for EMS responders, especially those that have resulted in the on-duty fatalities or serious injuries. • Expertise in the research on the causes of occupational illness, injury, and death for EMS responders; • Expertise in performing research on the development and demonstration of best practices to mitigate the incidence of workplace/on-duty illness, injury and death of EMS responders; • Expertise in performing outreach and coordination to provide information on this to local level fire and EMS responders. Requirements: • Experience with performance of successful complex health and safety research studies for EMS responders, for both the USFA and the fire service in general; • Existing mechanism to deliver outreach, information, and training targeted toward the more than fire service in the United States, specifically utilizing existing IAFF web-based training programs; • Experience with the development and delivery of materials targeted specifically for EMS responder occupational safety and health. IAFF and several of their staff members have a long history of performing successful complex fire service communications studies for both the USFA and the fire service in general. IAFF developed the January 1997 edition of EMS Safety - Techniques and Applications (FA-144) which this update will be primarily based on. The IAFF and their staff have tremendous experience and credibility among the U.S. fire service for their 96-year history of serving the needs of the career fire service, representing more than 300,000 fire fighters and paramedics that protect 85 percent of the nation's population. The IAFF possesses unique qualifications, experience, expertise and resources in conducting research/studies which cover all aspects of fire service communications and responder health and safety. IAFF is the only organization capable of performing the tasks to satisfy this requirement. This notice is NOT a request for quotation (RFQ) for competitive quotes/proposals and no solicitation document exists for this requirement. However, parties interested in responding to this notice shall submit technical data, sufficient to determine capability in providing the same services. All capability statements received by the closing of this notification of this synopsis will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Based on the above information, the only known organization which can provide technically acceptable services is the CVVFA. Submit capability statements (using PDF, MS Word, Excel attachments) to Kim Logue, Contracting Officer at
[email protected]. Statements are due by 11:00 a.m. EST on July 5, 2019. Primary Point of Contact: Kim Logue Contracting Office Address: DHS/FEMA/NETC Building D 16825 South Seton Avenue Emmitsburg, MD 21727 Place of Performance: Contractor's location Classification Code: B537 NAICS Code: 813920