Letter of Interest Number 952-4666 Page 3
January 15, 2009

LETTER OF INTEREST NUMBER 952-4666952-4666
Central Valley Regional Adolescent Psychiatric Health FacilityCentral Valley Regional Adolescent Psychiatric Health Facility

The County of Fresno will be issuing Requests for Proposals (RFP) for Central Valley Regional Adolescent Psychiatric Health Facility. To contain reproduction and mailing costs, we will mail the RFP only to those organizations that request them.

An Overview and description of services are attached.

The interest form must be received by FAX or mail at Fresno County Purchasing by February 3, 2009 by 5:00 p.m..

If your organization is interested in receiving RFQ/RFP’s for any of the above services, please return the completed form to:

Letter of Interest Number 952-4666
County of Fresno Purchasing
4525 E. Hamilton Avenue
Fresno, CA 93702
Phone: (559) 456-7110
FAX: (559) 456-7831

If you have any questions, please contact Patricia Flaherty, Buyer III, Purchasing Division at (559) 456-7110.

GWP:PJF:jol

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Organization
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CENTRAL VALLEY REGIONAL ADOLESCENT

PSYCHIATRIC HEALTH FACILITY

LETTER OF INTEREST

INTRODUCTION

Fresno County, on behalf of five Central Valley county collaborative (Fresno, Madera, Tulare, Kings, and Merced) is seeking a qualified organization who is interested in developing a traditional or augmented psychiatric health facility (PHF) for youth ages 8-18. A traditional PHF is authorized pursuant to California Welfare and Institutions Code Section 4080 et.al. and Title 22, Division 5, Chapter 9 et.al. of the California Code of Regulations. An augmented PHF is authorized pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code Section 4080 (h) and Title 22, Division 5, Chapter 2 of the California Code of Regulations.

The augmented PHF should be developed in such a manner that it is accreditable by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and by the United States Department of Health and Human Service’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

The purpose of this Letter of Interest is to allow organizations to provide a basic level of information regarding both their interest and their capacity to develop such a program.

BACKGOUND

The Central Valley counties lack access to specialty inpatient psychiatric care for youth. There has been a series of closures of acute inpatient programs throughout the Central Valley and in the neighboring regions of the state. In 2002, Fresno’s Cedar Vista Hospital’s adolescent unit closed. The adolescent units associated with Stanislaus Behavioral Health Center closed in 2005 and Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula discontinued accepting youth for inpatient treatment in 2006. Currently the nearest pediatric inpatient psychiatric units are located in Bakersfield and in Sacramento.

FACILITY

Fresno County has identified a facility that could be updated and remodeled for this purpose. The building which housed the discontinued Sanger Hospital could be retrofitted and remodeled to be used as a psychiatric health facility. The facility was originally designed as a skilled nursing facility and can be reconfigured to function as a psychiatric health facility. The building has two separate wings which could be used to locate youth depending upon their age and/or nature of their mental health condition.

Fresno County may lease the building directly or have the provider organization lease the facility.

INFORMATION REQUESTED

The five county consortiums would like interested parties to briefly provide the following information:

1.  Relate your organization’s experience in providing acute inpatient services;

2.  Indicate if your organization anticipates collaborating or partnering with any other organizations or entities to provide this service;

3.  Indicate how your organization would anticipate providing psychiatric coverage for this program and which physician group or attending staff would provide these services;

4.  Indicate what your organization’s experience has been in billing Medi-Cal and other third party insurance carriers;

5.  Indicate if your organization currently has contracts with county mental health programs.

PROVIDERS’ QUESTIONS

If providers have specific questions and they would like the Central Valley consortium to respond as part of a future request for proposal (RFP) process, please indicate your questions in your response to the Letter of Interest and they will be discussed at any future bidder’s conference.

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