Please scroll down for all info to date.

UPDATED January 27, 2020
3:45PM

QUESTION: How many total users will be interacting with the solution? We reviewed the blog, you did mention the number of providers you have, however we would like to understand what other types of users that would be using the solution such as, Call Center Agents, Care Managers, System Administrators, Marketing Managers, etc.

RESPONSE: We do not anticipate any other users of the system, as the RFP requires the proposal to indicate how LCHD will be able to get data out of the system into our business intelligent platform. The Proposal must also indicate how the system will interact with NextGen and load appropriate appointment reminder data into the EHR. In addition, we are only seeking one way communication (appointment reminders, no-show follow-up, survey) with this proposal.

QUESTION : What lessons were learned or gaps identified from the previous initiatives piloted?

RESPONSE: :  LCHD has piloted text confirmations for medical appointments with 3 of our providers.  During this pilot, our no-show rate for these providers reduced by less than 2%.  Opportunities identified include:  patients not responding to text confirmations and patients confirming via text then still no showing for their appointment. 

QUESTION: What tools/technologies are in place to support data management (e.g. data quality tools, master data management, data classification, etc.)?

RESPONSE: LCHD leverages several data tools to run its intelligence platform. We primarily use a data warehouse strategy centered on a MS SQL Server database with Tableau layered on top. We use the Tableau Data Management add-on for data catalogue functionality, business glossary, and management of our data governance functions.

QUESTION: Do you have a current ETL or preferred middleware solution that can be leveraged for the bi-directional sync of data between the awarded solution and NextGen? Data sources mentioned for survey reporting include "patient demographics, medical, and other related information"..  Can you identify the source for each data set and define the data elements required for "medical and other related information"? (i.e. is all data coming from Practice Mgmt, or a combination of Practice Management/EHR/other system?)

RESPONSE: LCHD expects that this middle-ware would be part of the proposal from Vendor. Data would be expected to be from our internal EHR and Practice Management software (NextGen)

QUESTION: Does Lake County want to be able to respond to patient submitted reviews on various sites via Workflow or Process?

RESPONSE: LCHD is not looking to be able to respond to reviews on public sites with this proposal.

QUESTION: Will the organization have dedicated product owner(s) for the various systems as engaged key decision makers?

RESPONSE: We have several governance functions in place for various systems, including product owner designations.

QUESTION: Are there current processes and structures in place to support change management and  training to which the vendor should align or should the selected vendor propose their own best practice approach to change management and user training?

RESPONSE: LCHD is working on its transition to adopt the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) concepts. As such, we will have change management in place prior to execution of this proposal, but would still benefit from the vendor providing its learned best practices from other implementations.

QUESTION: Are there specific deployment validation procedures that the awarded vendor must follow for your organization?

RESPONSE: We would ask the vendor to provide a list of learned best-practice validation procedures. We will also develop pour own test scripts for implementation once awarded, in collaboration with the vendor.
 

ADDENDUM RFP 20003
UPDATED January 24, 2020
9:30AM

QUESTION: For the question about external review sites, can you please elaborate on what you are seeking here? You ask us to “…describe how satisfaction surveys lead patients to provide reviews…”. Not exactly sure what direction to take with this question.

RESPONSE: The Lake County Health Department would like vendors to describe how positive satisfaction survey’s would prompt patients to review us on public review sites (ZocDoc, Yelp, Google, etc.).

QUESTION: What facility/facilities will this cover?

RESPONSE: This will cover all FQHC and Outpatient Mental Health facilities (for appointment reminders and no-show follow-up) and will cover all sites for satisfaction surveys.

QUESTION: You mentioned a pilot program, who did you use, how long was this pilot program implemented and what facilities?

RESPONSE: The pilot program was run on appointment reminder texting only, in which we leveraged our current EHR vendor to provide that service.

QUESTION: Do you have an implementation plan, and can you share at this time?

RESPONSE: We do not have an implementation plan. This is one of the expectations of this RFP.

QUESTION: In the multi-modal approached described for patient satisfaction surveys, is email a “must-have” capability in order to participate in this RFP?
RESPONSE: E-mail is not a must have capability as long as the response still meets the intent of the requirement (i.e. to be multi-modal in the ways LCHD engages with their patients)

QUESTION: With regards to the May 31, 2020 implementation deadline, are there specific “must-have” solution use cases for that timeline?

RESPONSE: The must have use cases for the May 2020 deadline is the patient satisfaction surveys. However, we will give more weight to solutions that can be fully implemented (including patient engagement portions) by May 2020.

QUESTION: What roles within your organization do you currently expect will engage in two-way messaging with patients?

RESPONSE: Two-way messaging is not an essential part of this RFP. While we certainly would be open to this possibility, the essential component is messaging around patient reminders, no-show follow-up, and satisfaction surveys.

QUESTION: How many unique patients did you serve in the past 12 months?  How many scheduled encounters did you have in the past 12 months?

RESPONSE: We already answered this question in the blog on the January 14th update.
 

UPDATED January 23, 2020
4:00PM
 

QUESTION: You state to have us place EXCEPTIONS on the Pricing Sheet. With the limited blank space offered, can we just add a page following this one for our Exceptions ?

RESPONSE: Yes, you can include in your proposal submittal extra pages describing your exception for us to review.

QUESTION: Please advise the preferred location within the listed proposal order of “A to J” that you would like us to place the responses to the Technical Requirements that are listed on pages 6 to 8.

RESPONSE: We will leave it up to the discretion of each proposer on where within their submittal to provide responses to the Technical requirements as long as it is clearly marked and identified within proposal.      

QUESTION: When will all questions asked during the Pre-Proposal meeting (1/24) and submitted via email when be answered and will all questions from all vendors be provided for all vendors?

RESPONSE: As noted within the RFP Document page 10 item 8 , questions that have been emailed will be noted within the Addendum link, it is the Contractors responsibility to check and acknowledge when submitting their proposal. There will not be any updates to the Addendum blog unless the LCHD is unable to provide an answer a question during the pre- proposal meeting. In such cases the Company asking the question will be asked to provide such question in written format prior to the cutoff date and time of January 24, 2020 4:00 CST

UPDATED January 22, 2020
8:30AM

QUESTION: Regarding the Terms & Conditions listed in the RFP, will there be any consideration of amendments and/or changes via addendum?  If so, what would be the process for doing so?

RESPONSE: On page 1 of the RFP at the bottom of the page there is a BOX to check that states,  “If a Proposal includes any exceptions, Contractors must insert an “X” in the following box indicating a RFP submission with exceptions and provide detailed exception.”  

UPDATED January 21, 2020
1:30PM

QUESTION: Is the Lake County Health Department seeking a customizable off-the-shelf solution or a custom-built solution? With a deadline of May 20, I'm assuming you are seeking the former.

RESPONSE: The Lake County Health Department is open to any option that will meet the specified deadline and satisfy all the requirements listed in the RFP.
 

UPDATED January 17, 2020
9:15AM

QUESTION: Can you explain what you mean by the following-  Vendor must describe the means to interface patient demographic, medical, and other related information with the survey data, if permitted. 

RSPONSE: This point means that the vendor must describe how their survey results can be matched to demographic information of the patient (age range, sex, etc.), clinical information (such as diagnosis), and location (where the encounter for which they took the survey occurred). This will enable LCHD to perform analysis on these factors.
 

UPDATED January 16, 2020
2:00PM

QUESTION: In the Technical Requirements section there are 35 bullet points.  Are they to be responded to individually, point by point?  Or are you expecting a general response that contains info regarding all of the listed bullet point items?  I want to make sure, since some of the responses may be redundant between bullet points.

RESPONSE: The format and manner in which a Proposer provides in their submittal is at the discretion of each Proposer. The Proposals will be evaluated on if they fully addressed and provide the detailed information relative to each bullet point provided within the Scope of Services .   

UPDATED January 14, 2020
2:45PM

QUESTION: I do not see anything pertaining to the scope of what is to be proposed.  The "needs" are there (Appointment Reminders, Surveys, etc.), but from what I can see there is nothing explaining the number of providers, locations, appointment volumes, etc.

RESPONSE: Please see  information below as a guideline.

Behavioral Health and Primary Care services May-July 2019 

Billable Services Only   
Category  Provider Count 
Behavioral Health Services  182 
Providers seeing 200 or more patients each month 2 
Providers seeing 50-199 patients each month 57 
Providers seeing Less than 50 patients each month 123 

Primary Care Services 108 
Providers seeing 200 or more patients each month 43 
Providers seeing 50-199 patients each month 35 
Providers seeing Less than 50 patients each month 30 
  
Average Billable Encounters per Month

Category Encounters Distinct   Patient Count
Primary Care Clinics  (all clinics) 10,290  7,772
Behavioral Health Programs (all programs) 7,619 1,434

ADDENDUM RFP 20003
UPDATED January 13, 2020
3:45PM

QUESTION: How critical is it that Proposer provides software and ability to help with Patient Outreach?  Other than providing resources prior to patients in office interaction to assist with survey completion, we don’t currently have the technology for appointment reminders.

RESPONSE: The patient outreach component is critical to the RFP and any response lacking that capability would be considered non-responsive. Vendors should consider partnering with others in the space and providing a joint RFP if one or more of the capabilities are not available.

QUESTION: We do not do appointment reminders. Note that this allows us to specialize in this part of the patient experience. With that being said, do you think you would be able to have two vendors? One for appointment reminders and one for patient feedback? 

RESPONSE: Same as above, The patient outreach component is critical to the RFP and any response lacking that capability would be considered non-responsive. Vendors should consider partnering with others in the space and providing a joint RFP if one or more of the capabilities are not available.