The Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch (CLPPB) is a program within the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) in the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHSA), which works to prevent lead exposure and identifies lead-­exposed children. Lead is a toxin that damages most body organs.

The Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention (CLPP) Program receives the results of blood lead tests done in California and provides interventions, including: general educational services to populations at increased risk of lead exposure; specific educational and other defined services for children identified with increased blood lead; full public health nursing and environmental services (including home visits and inspections) to children who are identified with the highest blood lead levels and who are considered cases of lead poisoning; and follow­-up to assure that sources of lead exposure are removed. These mandated activities are carried out by the state CLPPB, in conjunction with state­supported CLPP Programs in local jurisdictions throughout the state. (Major program mandates can be found at California Health and Safety Code Section 105275 et seq.)

To perform these functions, CDPH CLPPB relies on an electronic information system that receives reports on laboratory tests and supports management and monitoring of lead­ exposed children. Any laboratory performing blood lead analyses is required to report the lead test results electronically to CDPH (Health and Safety Code Section 124130). In addition to providing a portal for laboratories to currently report approximately 700,000 lead test results to CDPH each year, the data system aggregates and compares repeat tests done on individual children, evaluates each new test to determine whether medical and public health intervention is required, and serves as a health record system to support management of children with lead exposure. Without this system, local and state lead programs would not be able to provide oversight to clinicians evaluating and managing lead­exposed children, or to identify and evaluate suspected sources of lead exposure. 

DESIRED BUSINESS OUTCOMES:

CDPH is seeking a system that: makes use of the Health Information Exchange Gateway; supports electronic laboratory reporting of large volumes (anticipating growth to > 2 million annually) of blood lead tests; has flexibility to incorporate new categories of data; is compatible with many laboratory reporting formats (HL7 and others); can match information to children in other data systems to be sure they are being appropriately reached; removes reliance on paper exchange of data; has automated tracking, analysis and reporting functions, which allow better monitoring and assessment of services and sources of lead exposure; assures compliance of laboratories with blood lead reporting requirements; is secure; and maximizes efficiencies in entry of information into the system, and minimizes error. 

CDPH seeks a solution that provides four types of business capabilities: Clinical Case Management, Environmental / Property Remediation Management, Surveillance, and Analytical Services Management.

Clinical Case Management

• Management of child lead exposure cases.
• Patient management.
• Lead exposure treatment management.
• Treatment coverage information management (e.g., insurance / social services)
• Health education services management

Environmental / Property Remediation Management

• Management of cases of lead contamination in homes and properties.
• Management of cases of other environmental lead contamination.

Surveillance

• Identification of clusters of elevated child lead blood cases.
• Identification of clusters of environmental lead contamination cases.
• Other approaches to the identification and characterization of lead exposure and contamination.

Analytical Services Management

• Management of the inventory of analytical instruments, their characteristics, location and calibration.
• Management of laboratories that provide environmental and clinical laboratory services.
• Management of blood sampling information and results.
• Management of environmental sampling information and results.

The State of California has a variety of requirements related to information security and system architecture. Which of these requirements are applicable will depend on the system/solution architecture proposed by the solution provider. Here are some of the non-functional requirements the solution provider should take into consideration: Access Control, Data Protection, Incident Response, Audit and Compliance, Physical Security, System Monitoring, Backup and Recovery, Vendor Management, and Configuration Management. 

By implementing the security requirements listed above, vendors can help ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of CDPH sensitive information while complying with HIPAA, NIST SP800-53, and California State Administrative Manual security standards, even if the system is managed in the Cloud.

This RFI is issued for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation.  A response to this RFI is not an offer and cannot be accepted by the State to form a binding contract.

This RFI is solely designed to provide CDPH with meaningful information to enable CDPH to determine how to proceed with the development of the Child Blood Lead Surveillance and Case Management solicitation.

RFI Respondents are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. The State is not responsible for any expenses associated with responding to this RFI.

The submission of a response does not constitute any commitment on the part of the interested party. However, the RFI Respondent agrees that the submitted information is correct to the best of the RFI Respondent’s knowledge. Also, the right to compete in future procurements is not affected in the event that the party chooses not to submit a response to this RFI. CDPH is also interested in learning the reasons for not submitting a response.