Sources Sought: 24/7 Nursing Telephone Triage Services to be provided at the Woodrow Wilson Keeble Memorial Health Care Center (WWKMHCC), Sisseton, SD. Sources Sought Notice Number: IHS-SS-26-1520417 This Sources Sought Notice is for informational and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation, an obligation or commitment by the Indian Health Service. This notice is intended strictly for market research to determine the availability of Indian Small Businesses Economic Enterprise (ISBEE), Indian Economic Enterprises (IEE). Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. The anticipated applicable NAICS code for this acquisition is 621111 – Office of Physicians. 1. BACKGROUND The IHS is an agency within the Department of Health & Human Services and is responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. The Indian Health Service provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who belong to 567 federally recognized tribes, in 35 states. The Indian Health Service Headquarters is located in Rockville, MD and then divided into twelve (12) physical areas: Alaska, Albuquerque, Bemidji, Billings, California, Great Plains, Nashville, Navajo, Oklahoma, Phoenix, Portland, and Tucson. The Great Plains Area Office (GPAO) works in conjunction with 19 Indian Health Service Units and Tribal Managed Service Units to provide health care to approximately 130,000 Native American located in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa. WWKMHCC falls under the GPAO and provides medical care to approximately 7,000 tribal members living on the Lake Traverse Reservation. Serving a rural area, many of our patients travel 100 miles round trip to receive care. The Service Unit was built in 2007 to provide an expanded level of outpatient health care services specifically designed to meet the needs of our population. Services include: Behavioral Health, Community Health, Dental, Laboratory, Nutrition Services, Optometry, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, Public Health Nursing, Purchased & Referred Care Services, and Radiology. 2. OBJECTIVE The primary objective for this project is for a toll free telephone Nurse Advice line to decrease Emergency Room (ER) visits for American Indian/Alaskan Native patients who live on or near the Lake Traverse Reservation, Sisseton, South Dakota. Great costs are incurred for ER visits which many of these ER visits by patients are unnecessary and/or inappropriate. This toll free access to a Nurse Advice line and the Medical Library line has proven to decrease unnecessary ER visits. It will direct patients to the appropriate care at the WWKMHCC, or to emergent care as needed. The Sisseton Indian Health Service requires these services to continue without interruption during the term of this contract. 3. SCOPE DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES Services will be provided as detailed in the attached Statement of Work. The contract resulting from this solicitation shall: Be a non-personal health care services contract under which the Contractor is an independent contractor. Allow the Government to evaluate the quality of professional and administrative services provided, but retains no control over the medical, professional aspects of the services rendered (e.g., professional judgments, diagnosis for specific medical treatment). Require the Contractor to indemnify the Government for any liability producing act or omission by the Contractor, its employees and agents occurring during contract performance. Require the Contractor to maintain medical liability insurance, in the coverage amount acceptable to the Contracting Officer, which is not less than the amount normally prevailing within the local community for the medical specialty concerned. Require the Contractor to assume sole and exclusive responsibility for employee federal taxes, social security, unemployment insurance, and workman’s compensation. Require the Contractor to provide daily compensation and travel reimbursements to each Contract Optometrist as appropriate. CONFLICT OF INTEREST. The Contractor shall not employ any person who is an employee of the United States Government if the employment of that person would create a conflict of interest. The Contractor shall not employ any person who is an employee of Health and Human Services (HHS) unless such a person seeks and receives approval in accordance with the Department of HHS. 4. CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS/ AND PERSONNEL QUALIFICATIONS TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS The Contractor shall possess the following: Ability to provide Contract Registered Nurses who are currently registered with their respective State Board of Nursing. Ability to provide Contract Registered Nurses who can interact with patients and clinical staff in a customer friendly and culturally sensitive manner. Government Furnished Property, Facilities, and Services WWKMHCC shall provide all medical and non-medical equipment and personnel for the care and management of patients when encounter forms are received from the Contractor within twenty- four (24) hours by telefax, and enter the patient information into the Electronic Health Record system. WWKMHCC shall provide all required blank and electronic Government forms applicable to the Indian Health Service. An appropriate orientation to the necessity of such forms will be provided by the Director of Nursing or her designee. WWKMHCC shall provide an ongoing method of monitoring and evaluation of the quality and appropriateness of patient care and of identifying deficiencies in the quality of services performed before the level of performance becomes unacceptable. WWKMHCC shall notify the Contractor, in writing, thirty (30) days prior, in the event that 24/7 Nurse Call services are no longer required. Contractor Furnished Equipment, Facilities, and Services 1. The Contractor shall maintain a fax machine, telephones, a toll-free telephone line, Registered Nurses, and personnel to provide these services to the WWKMHCC. 2. The Contractor shall provide toll free telephone access for Nurse Advice and Medical Library on a 24 hours per day/7 days per week basis to the WWKMHCC. All WWKMHCC active beneficiaries will have access to these services. The active beneficiaries population is an estimated 7,008. 3. The Contractor shall define the term “Member” as those members and their immediate family that are beneficiaries of the WWKMHCC active user population. 4. The Contractor shall fax an encounter form within 24 hours to the WWKMHCC Nursing staff and will include all encounters, and the caller’s name, date of birth, purpose of call, and the advice provided to the patient/beneficiary from the Nurse Advice Line. 5. The Contractor shall hold all information provided by the WWKMHCC and its members as confidential, and any and all such information will not be distributed to any third party, especially medical information of the members; and will take all steps necessary to safeguard the privacy of member information. 6. The Contractor shall not be responsible for Acts of God, acts or omissions of the WWKMHCC or actions beyond the control of the Contractor while performing services under the agreement. 7. The contract nurses shall utilize specialized and appropriate Microsoft-based software, interactive voice response technology, and the Schmitt/Thompson protocols to triage beneficiaries with a state of the art triage supported platform. The readily available and comprehensive protocols should reflect an extensive, high-quality physician written, reviewed, and updated medical knowledge base. 8. When patients in need of medical assistance call the Nurse Advice Line, they will first hear a disclaimer stating that if they are experiencing an emergency, they should hang up and call 911 or their appropriate emergency number. Phone calls will be answered by specially trained Health Service Specialists who will obtain patient demographics (name, dob, phone number) and the reason for call. If required, the call is transferred to the nurse; otherwise, the caller will receive a callback from the nurse. Calls are prioritized for callback, higher priority symptoms receive callback on average within 10 minutes, and non-urgent calls within 30 minutes. 9. The Contractor shall indemnify and hold WWKMHCC harmless from any claim, demand, loss, lawsuit, settlement, judgement, or other liability, and all related expenses which may arise from a negligent act or omission of the Contractor, its agents, or employees. WWKMHCC shall indemnify and hold the Contractor harmless for any claim, demand, loss, lawsuit, settlement, judgement, or other liability, and all related expenses which may arise from or in connection with a claim of a third party arising from a negligent act or omission of the WWKMHCC, its agents, or employees. Indemnity shall include damages, reasonable costs, reasonable expenses, and reasonable attorney’s fees as incurred by the party indemnified. The foregoing indemnification provision shall survive the expiration or termination of this contract. 10. The Contractor shall meet all applicable Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations standards during the performance of this contract. 11. The Contractor and contract Registered Nurses shall comply with Section 231 of the Crime Control Act of 1990, P.L. 101-647; the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act, P.L. 101-630; the Privacy Act of 1974; and the HIPPA Act of 1996. Failure to comply with these statutes will result in immediate removal. The Contractor and contract Registered Nurses shall be subject to a background investigation. 12. The Contractor and contract Registered Nurses shall respect and maintain the basic rights of patients, to include but not be limited to personal dignity. 13. The Contractor shall be responsible for travel, lodging, meals, labor, fringe benefits, Life Insurance, Social Security, Federal, State, and Local taxes, plus any other costs pertinent to the performance of this contract. Registered Nurse Qualifications - It is a condition of this contract that all required certifications in this Statement of Work remain current during the life of this contract. - The contract Registered Nurses must hold a current unrestricted state license from any of the fifty (50) states of the United States of America, a current basic life support (BLS) certification, and one (1) year experience as a Registered Nurse. - The contract Registered Nurses must have passed the NCLEX (National Council of Licensure Examinations). - The contract Registered Nurses shall speak, understand, read, and write English fluently and communicate with sufficient clarity to be understood by WWKMHCC personnel and its patients. - The Contractor and contract nurses shall possess the skill, knowledge, and sufficient initiative, interpersonal relationship skills, and social sensitivity all with full consideration of the mental, emotional, physical, and cultural factors, such that he/she can relate constructively to patients from Native American communities. Verification of Licensure To ensure that Registered Nurses are properly licensed and WWKMHCC is aware of any disciplinary actions taken against such nurses, the Contractor shall: 1. Verify through the State Board of Nursing that the Registered Nurse holds a current, active nursing license in good standing. 2. Inform WWKMHCC of the status of all licenses for each contract nurse who would provide services under this contract. 5. TYPE OF ORDER The award for this service will be a firm fixed price non-personal service purchase order. 6. ANTICIPATED PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE Period of Performance: Date of award for one (1) year, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, as scheduled with the Director of Nursing or their designee. The WWKMHCC is open during Federal Government holidays, which are: • New Year’s Day • Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday • Washington’s Birthday • Memorial Day • Juneteenth Day • Independence Day • Labor Day • Native American Day • Veteran’s Day • Thanksgiving Day • Christmas Day 7. PLACE OF PERFORMANCE Woodrow Wilson Keeble Memorial Health Care Center, Indian Health Service, 100 Lake Traverse Drive, Sisseton, SD. 8. REPORT(S)/DELIVERABLES AND DELIVERY SCHEDULE All work shall be performed 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, as scheduled with the Director of Nursing or her designee. Hours can differ if the facility has mutually agreed between the facility and contractor representative for the benefit of the surveyor. 9. PAYMENT The contractor shall submit invoices for services that is mutually agreed upon by the contractor and the COR through the Invoice Processing Platform (IPP.gov). Additional Information: The contractor shall be paid only for actual time services are performed under the terms of the contract at the hourly fixed flat rate. There is no differential pay for government holidays, nights, weekends, compensation time, or overtime will be approved . 10. Capability Statement/Information: Interested parties are expected to review this notice and attached statement of work to familiarize itself with the requirements of this project. Failure to do so will be at your firm’s own risk. The following information shall be included in the capability statement: 1. A general overview of the respondent’s opinions about the difficulty and/or feasibility of the potential requirement, and any information regarding innovative ideas or concepts. 2. Information in sufficient detail of the respondent’s (a) current capability and capacity to perform the work; (b) prior completed events of similar nature/size; (c) organizational experience and management capability; and (d) examples of prior completed Government contracts and other related information. 3. The respondents’ UEI number, organization name, address, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc.) Pursuant to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code: 621111 – Office of Physicians. 4. Any other information that may be helpful in developing or finalizing the requirements of the potential acquisition. 5. The capability statement shall not exceed 10 single-sided pages (including all attachments, resumes, etc.) presented in single-space and using a 12-point font size minimum, in either Microsoft Word or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), with 8-1/2 by 11 inch paper size, and 1 inch top, bottom, left and right margins. 6. All proprietary information should be marked as such. Statements should also include an indication of current certified small business status; this indication should be clearly marked on the first page of your capability statement (preferably placed under the eligible small business concern’s name and address). Responses will be reviewed only by IHS personnel and will be held in a confidential manner. 11. Closing Statement Point of Contact: Jeremiah Tsoodle, Purchasing Agent, at
[email protected] Submission Instructions: Interested parties shall submit capability via email to Jeremiah Tsoodle, Purchasing Agent, at
[email protected]. Must include Sources Sought Number IHS1520417 in the Subject line. The due date for receipt of statements is December 31, 2025, 1:00 p.m. Central Time. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time in order to be considered. This notice is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of IHS . IHS does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses nor otherwise pay for the preparation of any information submitted. As a result of this notice, IHS may issue a Request for Quote (RFQ). THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME . However, should such a requirement materialize, no basis for claims against IHS shall arise as a result of a response to this notice or IHS’s use of such information as either part of our evaluation process or in developing specifications for any subsequent requirement. Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in SAM.gov. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Confidentiality . No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response.