Indian Health Service Requests Proposals for Coaching, Mentoring Services for Pine Ridge Hospital Leadership

Patients and staff to benefit from hospital management guidance

The Indian Health Service today announced a new funding opportunity for contractors to provide coaching and mentoring for top level administrative positions at the Pine Ridge Hospital in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. This effort to improve hospital management is one of the key requirements of the Systems Improvement Agreement between IHS and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services designed to improve services at the hospital to fully meet safety and quality of care standards.

“This announcement is part of the IHS commitment to providing access to quality health care for patients,” said IHS Principal Deputy Director Mary L. Smith. “IHS is taking decisive action on short- and long-term changes that are sustainable over time to improve our ability to deliver quality health care in the Great Plains Area and across the IHS system. Investing in our staff and building capacity of Indian health care leaders is part of our overall quality improvement strategy.”

Phase II of the Systems Improvement Agreement calls for the services of an experienced and qualified hospital management firm to provide a team of coaches and consultants to work on-site with hospital executive leaders, which include chief executive officer, chief operations officer, chief nurse officer, chief medical officer and chief quality management officer.

The contract with the selected hospital management firm is for one year with an option of extending the contract two more years.

The current federal management team at Pine Ridge Hospital will work closely with the hospital coaches/consultants to build the structures, processes and skills that the permanent hospital management team will need to achieve successful outcomes both clinically and operationally. The consultants will provide support and coaching to address identified learning needs; and make interim, ongoing and final recommendations to support effective planning and successful transition to sustainable administration of the hospital.

The Request for Proposal and instructions on how to apply is available at https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/IHS/AMB/IHS-17-236-SOL-00003/listing.html .

Throughout this year, IHS has been collaborating with tribal leaders and local health partners on a series of actions to aggressively confront some of the long-standing health care service challenges in the Great Plains Area, pursuing solutions that will bring sustainable improvements in quality of care at regional hospitals and facilities, like Pine Ridge Hospital, and those across the IHS system:

IHS awarded a one-year contract to The Joint Commission for accreditation, training and education services to strengthen quality and patient safety
IHS expanded efforts to ensure medical equipment used at IHS facilities is up to date, properly maintained, and reliable, through the establishment of a new policy on the minimum standards for medical equipment management, purchase, maintenance, and replacement.
IHS announced a $6.8 million contract to Avera Health to expand telehealth in the Great Plains Area. This initiative is intended to bring tele-video ED and specialty services to the Great Plains Area IHS facilities, including emergency medical services.
CMS awarded a new contract to help support best health care practices and other operational improvements for IHS federal government operated hospitals that participate in the Medicare program.
IHS hired a new Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Chief Medical Officer for the Great Plains Area, to serve as the lead regional experts on IHS medical and public health services, providing technical leadership and guidance to facility chief medical officers and clinical staff in the region.

The IHS, an agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 2.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. For more information, visit http://www.ihs.gov. Follow IHS on Facebook .