Special Notice / Hearing: None
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Colleen Chawla, Chief, San Mateo County Health
David McGrew, Interim Chief Information Officer, San Mateo County Health
Subject: Resolution Authorizing the Chief of San Mateo County Health or Their Designee to Execute Agreements with Eligible Vendors for Contingency Staffing Services
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution authorizing the Chief of San Mateo County Health or their designee to execute agreements with the eligible vendors listed in Attachment A to provide Contingency Staffing Services for the period of June 28, 2025, through July 1, 2028 in an amount not to exceed $12,000,000, in aggregate.
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BACKGROUND:
The Health Information Technology division (HIT) of San Mateo County Health has embraced the agile staffing model by carefully using vendor-provided contingency staffing services.
Since the formation of the HIT division in 2013, the County’s Information Service Department and HIT worked together to apply the agile staffing model. For at least the past 6 years, due to HIT’s needs to provide specialized services to the County Health divisions, HIT created and maintained its own contingency staffing solution (the “Solution”) with this Board’s approval (see, for example, Resolution No. 078894). The Board’s requested authorization for HIT’s staffing Solution remains unchanged at $12,000,000 compared to its prior approval. The Solution resolves HIT’s short-term staffing requirements for Project Management, Operations Analysts, and Data Analyst to support the divisions of County Health due to budget and time constraints on hiring full time equivalents when additional staff is needed to address an IT concern post-haste.
There are meaningful conditions within the Solution to ensure that labor rights are protected and conflicts of interest are avoided given that individual contracts could be awarded at the department level in excess of $200,000 without coming back to the Board for approval. First, notice is provided in writing to the relevant union for each temporary staff that is selected through the temporary labor vendor pool. Second, the Director of Health IT screens requests from different departments for labor from particular vendors to ensure that pricing is appropriate given market conditions, within budget for temporary staffing, and that there does not appear to be any conflicts of interest.
DISCUSSION:
HIT completed a Request for Proposals to create a pool of staffing agencies that will be able to meet HIT’s expectations for the agile staffing model and provide excellent service levels to both HIT and its County Health division clients.
The agreements under the resolution will be utilized based on two criteria: 1) Surge Capacity, to increase staffing due to a declared emergency or other events that impact the operations of County Health services for residents, patients, or clients, and 2) Subject Matter Expertise (SME), in which an IT project and Electronic Health Record matter require SME that existing County staff do not possess. Further, to ensure that each staffing placement does not become a long-term substitute for budgeting and hiring into any particular position, each contract that is signed with an eligible vendor will not exceed one-year.
The agreement includes knowledge transfer from contingency staff to County staff, which will support a given application after the surge or need of an SME.
County Attorney has reviewed and approved the agreements and resolution as to form.
It is anticipated that medium and large projects will be completed on time and on budget with a customer satisfaction rating of good or better 80% of the time.
PERFORMANCE MEASURE:
|
Measure |
FY 2025-26 Estimated |
FY 2026-27 Projected |
|
Percentage of time that medium and large projects are completed on time and on budget with a customer satisfaction rating of good or better |
80% |
90% |
Community Impact:
In establishing a comprehensive list of approved providers for IT staffing services, our goal is to ensure that the selection process is inclusive, transparent, and equitable. This approach provides County Health with professional and technical information technology contracting services that support our organizational mission to deliver high-quality care while promoting diversity, equity, and opportunity in all aspects of our staffing decisions. We are committed to making opportunities available to a diverse range of IT staffing providers, to foster an inclusive environment that reflects our values of equality and fair opportunity. Through this equitable approach to contracting IT staffing services, we aim to create a more dynamic, diverse, and effective IT workforce that will support the County’s technological needs while ensuring that our staffing practices align with our core values of fairness, opportunity, and inclusivity.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The term of these agreements is from June 28, 2025 through July 1, 2028. The amount of these agreements is not to exceed $12,000,000 in aggregate for the three-year term, unchanged compared to the Board’s prior approval for the Solution in Resolution No. 078894. This agreement will be funded by a variety of sources, depending on the project and the requesting Health division.