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USAID Health Care Improvement Project
Contracting Agency: United States Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded URC a five-year indefinite quantity contract effective September 24, 2007, with a ceiling of $150 million, for the Health Care Improvement (HCI) Project. HCI builds on URC’s technical leadership of USAID’s global efforts to improve health care quality since 1990 through the Quality Assurance Project (QAP) I, II, and III.
The HCI Project supports the USAID Global Health Bureau and country missions to address significant challenges in raising the quality of health care in developing and middle income countries. Under HCI, URC is available to provide: (a) short-term technical assistance, (b) long-term technical assistance, program implementation, and performance monitoring, (c) information dissemination through seminars, workshops, conferences, and technical papers, and (d) training and study tours for host-country decision makers and technical personnel.
The new HCI contract’s task order mechanism allows USAID country missions and other U.S. Government agencies to either buy in to an existing task order or to issue separate task orders within the project’s mandate. Task orders awarded under HCI can extend up to 36 months beyond the end date of the contract in September 24, 2012, as long as they are awarded before the end date. Task orders are developed, awarded, and managed by the requesting unit (the USAID Mission or Bureau). The Global Health Bureau in Washington provides guidance and assistance when requested.
USAID has eight objectives for the HCI Project that define the scope of activities that may be implemented through this contract vehicle:
- Document the interventions supported by this task order to improve the quality of health care, how quality was measured, and the impact of these interventions
- Institutionalize modern quality improvement approaches as an integral part of health care in USAID-assisted countries
- Expand the evidence base for the application of QI to human resources (HR) planning and management
- Expand experience with the improvement collaborative approach in USAID-assisted countries
- Expand experience with the spread collaborative approach in USAID-assisted countries
- Expand the experience base for other specific QI approaches
- Improve the cost-effectiveness of QI in USAID-assisted countries
- Provide global technical leadership for QI in USAID-assisted countries
Task Order 1 under the HCI IQC, valued at $54 million, was awarded to URC on September 28, 2007 with a performance period of three years. URC’s subcontractors on Task Order 1—the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs for knowledge management; Initiatives, Inc. for human resources management; Management Systems International for scale-up and institutionalization; EnCompassLLC for program evaluation; and Family Health International for clinical HIV/AIDS—enhance the project’s technical assets and bring added value to USAID and host countries.
In addition to these partners, URC has identified other potential subcontractors for future task orders under the HCI IQC. These include: BroadReach Healthcare, Harvard School of Public Health, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, MAXIMUS Federal, Joint Commission International, New York State AIDS Institute, and Singapore Health Services Pte. Ltd. (SingHealth).
For more information on the Health Care Improvement Project award, please contact Dr. Neeraj Kak, HCI IQC Manager at nkak@urc-chs.com.
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