R -- THE A-Z OF CULTURAL COMPETENCY FOR HEALTH CARE SETTINGS: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR IMPLEMENTING CULTURAL COMPETENCY

Notice Date

June 7, 2001

Contracting Office

DHHS, PSC, DAM, GAB, Room 5-101, Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857

ZIP Code

20857

Solicitation Number

01T061276

Point of Contact

Joseph Pirrone, Supv Contracting Ofr 301-443-8826 or Nora Tyson Contract Spec. 301-443-8826

E-Mail Address

Program Support Center (jpirrone@psc.gov or ntyson@psc.gov)

Description

The Agency for the Office Of Public Health and Science(OPHS), Office of Minority Health (OMH), through the Program Support Center, General Acquisition Branch, plans to award a sole source simplified acquisition to the Inter-Face International. The anticipated date of award is June 22, 2001. Purpose Office of Minority Health (OMH) is supporting the development of a practical, step-by-step guide for use by health care organizations and providers as a means to assist them in implementing the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards that were published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), OMH. Background The profile of the U.S. population has become dramatically diverse in the last forty years. As a consequence of this dynamic increase in minority populations, health care organizations face the challenge of responding to the health needs of a multicultural society. With the recent publication of the OMH CLAS standards in health care, health organizations now have some guiding principles for meeting these needs. However, in order to conform to these standards in an efficient and effective manner, health care organizations, without much experience in designing or implementing CLAS, need practical, step-by-step guidance regarding where to start and what can be accomplished over a given timeframe. Furthermore, in order to achieve buy-in from health care organizations already struggling with shrinking budgets, decision makers must also be convinced that there is a business case as well as an ethical case behind CLAS, and that the standards can be implemented with a reasonable expenditure of funds and staff capacity. Prior to embarking on a viable path to achieve cultural and linguistic competence throughout their organizations, health care institutions must first conduct an audit of their current systems and evaluate their ability to appropriately serve diverse populations. They must be guided in the development of organizational mechanisms, tools, and human resources to begin the process of redesigning their day-to-day operations so that every patient is guaranteed access to care that is culturally and linguistically appropriate and respectful of their religious beliefs and practices. Health organizations must be provided with step-by-step approaches for developing policies and activities to ensure that they meet and maintain minimum CLAS standards. In the OMH final report on the CLAS, it recommends that toolkits and/or checklists be developed to assist health organizations in developing strategic approaches for the efficient implementation of CLAS. The development of this practical guide would serve as the starting point to achieve this. The CLAS standards guide will be directed for use by health care organizations; however, individual providers will also be encouraged to use the guide to make their practices and services more culturally and linguistically accessible. Scope of Work: OMH is supporting the development of a practical, step-by-step guide for implementing the CLAS standards. This guide shall be available in hard copy and as an interactive, web-based format which can be accessed from the OMH website. The guide shall include the following: -a rationale to encourage the cooperation and support of decisionmakers on CLAS; -a checklist for auditing organizational supports for CLAS; -guidance for identifying and tracking changes in race, ethnicity, culture, preferred languages, and religions of the populations served; -checklists for tracking demographic, cultural, and epidemiological changes in communities served; -guidelines for the ongoing training of staff to provide CLAS; -assistance in developing of a strategic long term plan; -procedures for the creation and maintenance of CLAS among health care organizations; and -recommendations for involving the community through collaborative partnerships on CLAS activities. Schedule of Deliverables: 1. The Contractor shall submit a work plan including a list of potential health care organizations that agree to test the guide. 2. The Contractor shall submit a rough-draft framework of guide format and contents. 3. The Contractor shall begin incremental posting of the guide online, adding sections at regular intervals, and create a feedback evaluation mechanism for online users. 4. The Contractor shall provide complete draft of guide. 5. The Contractor shall submit a summary of the project, a final draft of guide in camera ready form, and in interactive, internet format linked to OMH website. The proposed simplified acquisition is for services for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under authority of far 6.302. Interested persons may identify their interest by responding to the requirement within 10 days after the date of publication of this notice. A determination by the government not to compete this proposed simplified acquisition based upon 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. No solicitation is available. For further information, please contact Nora Tyson in Rm. 5C-03, Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Md. 20857 or on 301-443-8826.

Web Link

Program Support Center (Program Support Center)

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010611/RSOL015.HTM (W-158 SN50O2C9)