Tendarix.ca
1. Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)
An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.
2. Definition of the requirement
To provide solution already in place for online access to departmental developed and approved training material for Ontario Region nursing staff; this platform will insure access to mandatory education for nursing competencies required for safe patient care through a system that will house education materials developed by our Unit. It will also allow for tracking and reminders of mandatory recertification to allow the Region to report more accurately on staffing competencies to address recommendations from the nursing service audit, and required PMS reporting.
Ontario Region is home to both the largest on-reserve status First Nation population (98,212) and the largest overall status First Nation population (on and off-reserve) (215,205). There are 133 First Nation communities in Ontario. Thirty-three are remote and only accessible by air or ice roads. Ontario has Sixteen Tribal Councils, Four Political and Territorial Organizations, one Independent First Nation and two First Nations Health Authorities. The Region is home to 22 Nursing Stations plus 4 satellite offices, health centres/stations/offices, 10 Addictions Treatment Centres and two provincial hospitals.
FNIHB works with First Nations and Inuit partners to provide or fund effective, sustainable, and culturally-appropriate health programs and services, overseen by the Regional Primary Health Care Unit (RPHCU). Broadly, the RPHCU is responsible and accountable for the quality of health service delivery in First Nations communities in Ontario, including pharmacy, nutrition, and home and community care. Other examples of health service delivery activities are shown below:
o Emergency and urgent care response – lifesaving care in the event of trauma (e.g., gunshots, knife stabs, motor vehicle accidents, assaults) and medical emergency (e.g., heart attacks, seizures, respiratory failure)
o Supporting end of life care – dying closer to home
o Respond to infectious disease outbreaks and environmental health assaults
o Provide episodic illness care, access to laboratory and diagnostic tests
o Provide immunizations, public health education, health planning support
It is a departmental requirement that federally employed nurses and other professionals maintain currency with concensus best practices, organizational policies and protocols, and adherence to the requirements of provincial Regulated Colleges (e.g., College of Nurses of Ontario). The Primary Health Care staff are dispersed across the Region of Ontario, making face-to-face training and synchronous training challenging.
In 2015, the Office of the Auditor General (AOG) completed an assessment of primary care delivery. Significant recommendations from this report concerned the maintanance of and accessiblity to FNIHB mandatory training (specialized training curricula) that supports the delivery of emergency and urgent care, public health outbreaks, immunization delivery, infection disease prevention and control).
The community illness burden is increasing and constantly changing. As a result, our educational offerings (in addition to the mandatory training) must be nimble both in terms of content and delivery mechanism. This is best done through a system that is controlled by Ontario Region and the subject matter experts knowledgeable about the Regional context, processes and learning needs of the Region. Learners will be able to access content in a timely manner and review archived content to reinforce understanding and implementation.
Given the COVID context that we are currently in, and are projected to be in for additional months, ISC FNIHB ON Region needs a solution to offer and be able to track mandatory education for nurses, without which health care outcomes for FN peoples will be impacted. Our team has demands for new hire orientation at a frequency of twice per month, from previous schedule of once every 3-4 months, and in-person training is not currently an option.
An e-learning platform addresses these geographic and scheduling issues. Asynchronous securely accessible curricula will support continuous professional development and tracking of such education. The proposed e-learning platform comprises part of the response to the AOG report. A consistent and accessible e-learning platform is a critical tool to ensure equitable access to continuing professional development consistent with interdisciplinary practice and independent of the location of the provider’s practice.
Call for bids would further delay the access to required training and could potentially yield nil providers when we already have an identified vendor, who is able to deliver on all aspects of project needs including ongoing IT support, tracking function including notification of pending expiries, and meeting dual language requirements. The use of this service will allow the Region to report more accurately on staffing competencies to address concerns raised by the 2015 OAG Nursing service audit.
The current e-learning platform has been successfully used since its official launch in MAR 2021. The period from NOV-MAR was necessary to tailor the site to ON Region specifications, upload content, and train FNIHB OR CD team staff to be proficient with use. The launch piloted the immunization certification material, which is imperative during COVID response for FNIHB, Band, Agency and Surge nurses, to ensure timely access to the COVID19 vaccine for First Nations people living in community. Following sussessful roll-out, Primary Care colleagues then uploaded other manadatory education content for newly hired nurses, and therefore the site now hosts material from not only the Health Protection Unit but also from Primary Care Nursing. Other program areas within FNIHB OR (Dental) have also expressed the desire to use the platform, and it is therefore imprudent to seek an alternate vendor.
The contractor is required to provide the following:
Specifications and Standards
Contractor’s Obligations
Language of Work
The work product is to be delivered in English. The e-learning platform has capacity/ability to be bilingual to meet language requirement.
3. Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement
This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement(s)
o Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)
4. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier
Ontario Region is home to both the largest on-reserve status First Nation population (98,212) and the largest overall status First Nation population (on and off-reserve) (215,205). There are 133 First Nation communities in Ontario. Thirty-three are remote and only accessible by air or ice roads. Ontario has Sixteen Tribal Councils, Four Political and Territorial Organizations, one Independent First Nation and two First Nations Health Authorities. The Region is home to 22 Nursing Stations plus 4 satellite offices, health centres/stations/offices, 10 Addictions Treatment Centres and two provincial hospitals. Regional health services are delivered by over 200 nurses who are geographically dispersed across the Region.
In 2015, the Office of the Auditor General (AOG) completed an assessment of primary care delivery. Significant recommendations from this report concerned the maintanance of and accessiblity to FNIHB mandatory training (specialized training curriculi that support the delivery of emergency and urgent care, public health outbreaks, immunization delivery, infection disease prevention and control). This E-learning platform comprises part of the mandated response to this AOG report.
Indigenous Services Canada has an obligatory responsibility to ensure that nurses working in First Nations communities have the appropriate education preparation to provide safe standard of health care. With the removal of access to the Education Proficiency in Immunization Certification (EPIC) course from the Canadian Pediatric Society (CPS) site at the beginning of 2017, the process for replacement of this course content was initiated.
As the FNIHB National Office was not in a position to support building, accessing or maintaining IP for this course content, or in utilizing existing national web presence to host the material, the ON Region surveyed other Regions and others in search of possible solutions.
One of the options was the Canadian School of Public Service (CSPS); when contacted, the CSPS notified it was not able to assist as the required content does not fit with the School's requirement that materials have a broad applicability to all public servants.
Following department transition from HC to ISC, in 2018, ON Region met with AANDC IT staff to determine if their current system would meet needs and it was determined that it would not accommodate the need for external access for Band and Agency employed nursing staff, and was therefore not a viable option.
Call for bids would delay the access to the already established e-learning platform and could potentially yield nil providers when we already have an identified vendor, who is able to deliver on all aspects of project needs including ongoing IT support, tracking function including notification of pending expiries, and meeting dual language requirements. A cursory search has already been done to identify other possible providers as indicated previously – including specifically seeking Indigenous companies.
Given the COVID context that we are currently in, and are projected to be in for additional months, ISC FNIHB OR needs a solution to offer and be able to track mandatory education for nurses, without which health care outcomes for FN peoples will be impacted. Our team has demands for new hire orientation at a frequency of twice per month, from previous schedule of once every 3-4 months, and in-person training is not currently an option. In addition, we have a bank of learning materials already on the platform, and this includes content from our Primary Care colleagues to meet the demands of new hire orientation mandatory education.
The E-learning platform has the capacity to maintain an asynchronous inventory of curiculi, track and maintain a repository of attendance and completion rates, and produce prompts for nurses to renew and/or complete their mandatory training. This will allow Ontario Region to report accurately to Executive Management and Central Agencies regarding currency of mandatory training and proactively respond to the changing demands of health service delivery.
5. Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s)
The following exception(s) to the Government Contracts Regulations is (are) invoked for this procurement under subsection 6(C), the nature of the work to be contracted for is such that it would not be in the public interest to solicit bids
6. Period of the proposed contract or delivery date
The proposed contract is for a period of 4 years, from contract award.
7. Cost estimate of the proposed contract
The estimated value of the contract, including option(s), is $ 165,000.00 (GST/HST extra).
8. Name and address of the pre-identified supplier
iTacit Healthcare Inc., 401 Bishop Drive, Suite 102, Fredericton, NB, Canada, E3C 2M6
9. Suppliers' right to submit a statement of capabilities.
Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the goods, services or construction services described in the ACAN may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this notice on or before the closing date of this notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.
10. Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities
March 23rd , 2022
11. Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities
Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:
Alex Cormier Howie, Senior Procurement Officer
Telephone: 873-354-0959
E-mail: a••••••••@•••••••.••.ca
The buyer plans to award this contract to a named supplier without competition. If your business can do this work, send a statement of capabilities to the contracting authority before March 23, 2022. If it qualifies, the buyer must open a full competition.
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