Statewide Courier Service of COVID-19 and Infectious Disease Specimens to Wadsworth Center

The goal of this RFP is to establish a dedicated courier system that can provide transport of specimens and samples within all regions of New York State to maintain the necessary critical transport of specimens to WC. For the purposes of this RFP, the regions are consistent with the NYSDOH’s Regional Office delineations and include the Western Region, Central Region, Capital Area, and Metropolitan Region. For a list of the counties included in each region, visit: https://www.health.ny.gov/facilities/cons/more_information/regional_offices.htm. An applicant may propose to cover more than one region. The courier service(s) will be selected to establish a transport system from a given region(s) to the WC – David Axelrod Institute located at 120 New Scotland Avenue, Albany, NY 12208. The primary sites for pick-up of specimens for delivery to Wadsworth Center will be hospitals within the regions listed above. There may be additional sites that are scheduled for samples transport to Wadsworth Center. After selection, the Wadsworth Center will work with the selected vendor to set-up routes in each of the regions. The routes may be daily or up to 5 times per week (Monday-Friday) and potentially Saturday and Sunday for special requests. There is also the need for transport of STAT specimens that need to be transported urgently to Wadsworth Center for testing. Specimens for transport should be packed by the sample collection entity to Category B shipping standards and have adequate frozen ice packs or other temperature controls to ensure the specimens remain at proper temperature for 24 hours. The couriers will be reimbursed for their services (reimbursable costs include compensation for miles). The award will extend through July 2026 pending the continued availability of funds. A total of $3 million is available to fund this courier system.