Bid evaluation is the process of analyzing the bids submitted by a different organization by examining the validity of each bid and comparing them against each other to enable the responsible organization to choose the best offer to help the organization meet its goals. Bid evaluation is a crucial aspect in any organization, but in healthcare, every tender submitted goes through a vigorous process to ensure all provisions meet the needs of the health facility (Hanen et al., 2017). Consequently, the entire process requires a detailed plan to analyze proposals, the need for highly qualified reviewers, and ensuring that every element in the bid aligns with the checklist before the committee can approve a bid in charge. However, the entire process also has several challenges, which, if unchecked, can result in adverse impacts on the healthcare organization tendering its organizational projects.
The bid evaluation panel can choose bids based on several factors, including the experience of the companies tendering their bids, the suggested costs, and the time a given project can be completed. In a healthcare setting, there are other complex matters that the committee must check, especially regarding the compliance requirements (Miller et al., 2019). There are four stages used in the evaluation and analysis of bids, including preliminary checks on whether the bids meet the organization’s requirements, compliance to healthcare technical requirements, evaluation of price, and post-qualification examinations.
The preliminary examination on how a bid meets the qualification requirements involves the examination of the bids to validate that the companies or nations submitting their bids are eligible to offer such kind of works needed. The stage also involves checking for the validity of bid securities in some instances. Moreover, the process ensures that all commercial, tax, and other legal aspects of the work are met (Jamili, 2020). Moreover, the technical aspects of the bids are checked to ensure that they meet the requirements for healthcare services. If the bid evaluation determines that any submitted bid does not meet the requirements, it is discarded.
The price offered by the bidders is crucial to the decision of the vendor. In this stage, the panel analyzes the offered price against any computational issues based on the type of procurement. It considers sums, discounts, and other financial factors involved in calculating the entire financial aspect of the project. In cases where the prices of the bids are indicated in more than a single currency, the panel ensures that all the submitted bids approved for the second phase are in the same currency. The tenders committee then compares the offered prices and conducts price reasonableness for the fairness of the bid.
Bid evaluation also involves due diligence analysis, which mostly applies to the lowest responsive evaluated bid. According to Wager et al. (2017), most healthcare organizations prequalify their bidders and further conduct due diligence to ascertain that the selected bidder is compliant with all the aspects necessary. Healthcare organizations that do not prequalify bidders perform post-qualification based on specific criteria relying on the submitted documents.
The entire bid evaluation process involves different people who can be members of the organization offering the tender or an outsourced organization. According to Wager et al. (2017), a bid evaluation panel can comprise the affected departmental heads, finance officers, and designated technology officers. The panel ensures that every aspect of bids corresponds to the needs and capabilities of the organization offering the tender.
Several changes can affect bid evaluation, impacting the entire process. For instance, time can be a crucial factor in tenders as the organization with the project may require the bidder to adhere to some strict timelines. The differences in timing significantly increase the prices of the bids, making it difficult for the organization to succeed in the project (Hanen et al., 2017). Where there are no organizations that match the tender requirements, the company offering the tender can choose the less qualified providers, thus affecting the value of the project.
References
Hanen, J., Kechaou, Z., & Ben Ayed, M. (2017). Agent technology based modelization systems for healthcare. IETE Journal of Research, 63(5), 630-642. Web.
Jamili, A. (2020). Tender participation selection problem with fuzzy approach. Advances in Industrial Engineering, 54(4), 355-364. Web.
Miller, F. A., Lehoux, P., Peacock, S., Rac, V. E., Neukomm, J., Barg, C., Bytautas, J. P. & Krahn, M. (2019). How procurement judges the value of medical technologies: a review of healthcare tenders. International journal of technology assessment in health care, 35(1), 50-55. Web.
Wager, K.A., Lee, F. W., & Glaser, J. P. (2017). Health care information systems: a practical approach for health care management. Jossey-Bass; 4 Ed. (ISBN-13: 978-1119337188).