Exhibit 1 - Agenda Information SheetCity of Denton
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AGENDA INFORMATION SHEET
DEPARTMENT: Procurement
INTERIM ACM: Cassey Ogden
DATE: January 24, 2023
SUBJECT
Consider adoption of an ordinance of the City of Denton, a Texas home-rule municipal corporation,
authorizing the City Manager to execute a contract with Quality Response Medical Staffing, LLC, for city
jail phlebotomy services for the Police Department; providing for the expenditure of funds therefor; and
providing an effective date (RFP 8137 – awarded to Quality Response Medical Staffing, LLC, in the one
(1) year not-to-exceed amount of $189,250.00).
INFORMATION/BACKGROUND
Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) offenses are a significant public safety issue in the City of Denton. The
growth of the city, being home to three Universities / Colleges, the number of Interstate, US, and State
highways within our jurisdiction, and the growing entertainment districts all contribute to the number of
incidents of impaired driving the police department responds to. In addition to the traditional alcohol-based
DWI offenses, the number of drug-related or combined alcohol and drug-impaired driving instances is
growing each year. The Police Department has recognized that obtaining blood specimens in these offenses
is preferred over traditional breath tests. Several factors have contributed to this; a breath test does not detect
legal or illegal narcotics which can be a source of impairment, officers cannot obtain a search warrant for a
breath test if the person refuses to provide one, and the District Attorney’s office prefers blood tests as the
blood specimen can be screened for multiple intoxicants and blood lab results provide a more precise blood
alcohol concentration over a breath test. A person arrested for a DWI offense can consent to provide a
breath or blood specimen or they can refuse. It is the working procedure of the Denton Police Department
to apply for a search warrant on refusal cases and try to obtain a blood specimen using the search warrant.
The current procedure for a “routine” DWI arrest involves transporting the arrestee to one of two local
hospitals and having medical staff perform the blood draw. Over the last few years, the Police Department
has identified two significant concerns with the current operating procedures in place for obtaining blood
specimens from DWI arrestees. First, there is an officer safety concern, and second an overall lack of
efficiency and use of department resources to obtain the specimens. Currently, neither hospital charge the
City any fee to perform the blood draws, but that does not leave the department with any leverage when
wait times become excessive at the hospitals either.
The officer safety issues arise from the fact the department is taking an intoxicated, and often unpredictable,
person to an unsecured facility and having to remove the handcuffs to complete the blood draw. In instances
where the arrestee has already resisted arrest and is secured in a more complex restraint device known as
the WRAP, one of their arms still has to be freed in most cases for the medical professional to perform the
blood draw. There have been instances of physical altercations happening in the hospitals during the blood
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draw procedure. There is a chance that an innocent bystander could be injured during one of these
altercations.
In January 2021, the Police Department started tracking the time that elapsed from the time an officer places
someone under arrest for a DWI offense and the time that a specimen is obtained. In the calendar year 2021,
that average time was 75 minutes per case. That time would include the transport to the hospital, any time
spent preparing the search warrant in refusal cases, and then waiting on the hospital staff to complete the
draw. The Police Department handled over 900 DWI cases in 2021. The time spent between in custody and
obtaining the specimen (using the average of 75 minutes) equates to 1,125 man-hours spent solely on that
portion of these cases. Jan 1 through Nov 30 of 2022, the average time has dropped slightly to 67 minutes
per case.
In January of 2022, the Police Department submitted a grant application to the Texas Department of
Transportation (TxDOT) under their General Traffic Safety Grants program to reimburse the City the
majority of the costs of hiring a phlebotomist/phlebotomy company to staff the city jail seven nights a week
to perform blood draws “in-house”. The grant application was approved by City Council on December 14,
2021, under Resolution 21-2678.
While DWI arrests are made around the clock, the great majority of them are late night / early morning
hours. The grant was written to reimburse the city part of the costs of hiring a phlebotomist(s) for the hours
of 8 pm to 6 am to cover peak hours. The grant was awarded in September of 2022 and funding was released
in January 2023. The services will give the department more control over the process by reducing reliability
on hospital staff, increasing safety as the blood draws will be conducted in a secure environment, and
becoming more efficient as officers will not have the transport time to the hospital coupled with the wait
time of the hospital staff. In consent cases, the arrestee will be brought to the jail, searched, and taken into
the blood draw room and the draw performed. They would then be booked into the jail. In refusal cases, the
arrestee would be brought to the jail, searched, and turned over to the jail staff for book-in while the officer
prepares the search warrant affidavit. Using electronic search warrant capabilities the department already
possesses, officers can have the search warrant issued within minutes after submitting the affidavit to the
judge.
The Police Department believes the average time between custody and a blood specimen being obtained
can be reduced by 50%. This will allow officers to complete the arrest paperwork sooner, thereby returning
them to active duty sooner and getting them back on the street. More importantly, this will allow them to
complete a vital part of their investigations in a safe and secure environment, reducing the risk to everyone
involved.
The Department has budged $189,250.00 for this project. The Traffic Safety Grant will reimburse up to
$125,000 of the costs and the contract will run through the end of the fiscal year 2023.
After reference checks, the staff feels that Quality Response Medical Staffing, LLC is an established
business that has experience working with larger entities and possesses the competence to perform the work
requested. Below is the information Quality Response Medical Staffing, LLC provided regarding the wages
they pay their employees who will be assigned to the City’s contract.
Position Description Number of Assigned
Employees
Hourly Rate of Assigned
Employees
Phlebotomist 3 assigned employees $18 - $22 per hour
Request for Proposals was sent to 198 prospective suppliers, including 26 Denton firms. In addition,
specifications were placed on the Procurement website for prospective suppliers to download and advertised
in the local newspaper. Two (2) proposals were received, references were checked, and proposals were
evaluated based upon published criteria including work plan, staffing, probable performance, and price.
Based upon this evaluation, Quality Response Medical Staffing, LLC was ranked the highest and
determined to be the best value for the City.
NIGP Code Used for Solicitation: 948 - Health Related Services & 952-
Human Services
Notifications sent for Solicitation sent in IonWave: 198
Number of Suppliers that viewed Solicitation in IonWave: 10
HUB-Historically Underutilized Business Invitations sent out: 24
SBE-Small Business Enterprise Invitations sent out: 90
Responses from Solicitation: 2
RECOMMENDATION
Award a contract with Quality Response Medical Staffing, LLC, for city jail phlebotomy services for the
Police Department, in a not-to-exceed amount of $189,250.
PRINCIPAL PLACE OF BUSINESS
Quality Response Medical Staffing, LLC
Schertz, TX
ESTIMATED SCHEDULE OF PROJECT
This is a one (1) year contract.
FISCAL INFORMATION
These services will be funded from DWI Phlebotomy account 308807.7899 Requisition #158615 has been
entered into the Purchasing software system in the amount of $182,500. The budgeted amount for this item
is $189,250.
EXHIBITS
Exhibit 1: Agenda Information Sheet
Exhibit 2: Pricing Evaluation
Exhibit 3: LLC Members
Exhibit 4: Ordinance and Contract
Respectfully submitted:
Lori Hewell, 940-349-7100
Purchasing Manager
For information concerning this acquisition, contact: Daryn Briggs, 940-349-8970.
Legal point of contact: Marcella Lunn at 940-349-8333.