Approve and authorize the Yolo County Deputy Director of the General Services Department/Manager of Procurement/County Purchasing Agent or designee to execute the eighth amendment to PO No. 4385 with LocumTenens.com to add funding in the amount of $37,160 for 2024-25, for a new contract maximum of $2,610,850 for the period of July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2026, for the provision of adult psychiatric staffing services. (No general fund impact) (Morales)

Approve and authorize the Yolo County Deputy Director of the General Services Department/Manager of Procurement/County Purchasing Agent or designee to execute the eighth amendment to PO No. 4385 with LocumTenens.com to add funding in the amount of $37,160 for 2024-25, for a new contract maximum of $2,610,850 for the period of July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2026, for the provision of adult psychiatric staffing services.

On or about June 22, 2022, the County entered into Agreement Legacy PO No. 4385 (the Agreement) with LocumTenens.com for the provision of adult psychiatric services for eligible Yolo County clients including County residents conserved under the Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act. County Behavioral Health programs rely on short-term contracted psychiatric providers to augment their county staffing as recruitment and retention of such staff (i.e., psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners) is very difficult in this field. Contracting with LocumTenens.com provides professional staffing augmentation, recruitment, presentation, and management which is the best option as this is a challenging process for the County.

From February 2023 through August 2025, the parties amended the Agreement several times to add funding for multiple fiscal years due to the ongoing inability to recruit and retain psychiatry staff to fill vacant County positions, to cover services provided by LocumTenens.com staff, to increase hourly rate for Psychiatry/Telepsychiatry, and to provide additional funding needed to cover invoices.

LocumTenens.com providers continue to be used at a higher level than planned at the start of the fiscal year due to ongoing prescriber employee vacancies. The additional funding is needed to cover outstanding invoices for FY2024-25.

Performance Measures:
Performance Measures are not associated with this Agreement. As HHSA does not directly supervise LocumTenens.com psychiatric providers and each provider’s contract is secured in three-month increments, the development of an RBA for this contract has not yet occurred. Additionally, the contracted staff schedules vary widely as they may provide temporary and/or fill-in services when HHSA loses an HHSA staff prescriber. Each quarter, a rudimentary prescriber capacity versus need comparison is undertaken to inform ongoing contracted provider arrangements.

County Counsel will approve the Agreement as to form.
Department of General Services, Procurement Division.

On April 26, 2022, the then acting Yolo County Procurement Manager or designee approved a sole/single source procurement for these services. Without sole source approval of the agreement with the vendor, the County would lose the staffing of two psychiatrists and one nurse practitioner, resulting in devastating impacts to the County’s ability to provide mandated psychiatric care for County mental health clients. Factors considered, included but were not limited to: 1) the County’s ongoing difficulty in recruiting psychiatrists and nurse practitioners (prescribers) due to statewide staffing shortages; 2) satisfactory vendor performance–the vendor has been a County vendor for over five years providing competitive rates and documented successful performance in recruiting high quality LocumTenens.com providers; 3) competitive pricing/cost savings; and 4) loss of three Locum Tenens.com providers from the vendor, who are actively on the HHSA clinic psychiatric staff contingent, carrying a combined case load of hundreds of County mental health clients.