To: Board of Supervisors
From: Dr. Grant Colfax, Health Services Director
Report Title: Contract Amendment #23-796-1 with The College of American Pathologists
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Health Services Director, or designee, to execute on behalf of the County Contract Amendment #23-796-1 with The College of American Pathologists, a corporation, effective June 9, 2026, to amend Contract #23-796, to increase the payment limit by $520, from $6,480, to a new payment limit of $7,000, with no change in the original term ending May 31, 2028, and extend the contract term for successive (1) year periods until terminated, for additional access to its cancer treatment protocol database for the Clinical Laboratory at the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center (CCRMC).
FISCAL IMPACT:
Approval of this Contract Amendment will result in additional expenditures of up to $520 over a two-year period and will be funded 100% by Hospital Enterprise Fund I revenues. (Rate increase).
BACKGROUND:
This Contract Amendment meets the needs of the County by providing a cancer checklist for patient reporting. CCRMC's Clinical Laboratory will utilize The College of American Pathologists' electronic Cancer Checklists (CAP eCC) for electronic copyrighted work within the Epic Beaker Anatomic Pathology System to provide vital information to the treating oncologist/surgeon and allow the Pathologists to use structured reports in a standardized XML format that enables the collection of cancer data elements essential for patient care including tumor staging data used with permission of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and selection of treatment protocols. The CAP Cancer Protocols provide guidelines for collecting the essential data elements for complete reporting of malignant tumors and optimal patient care. These protocols incorporate the latest standards to help pathologists and laboratories keep abreast of the advances and updates in cancer reporting, including The World Health Organization Classification of Tumors (Blue Books) and The American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging Manual. The importance is that some content contained within the CAP eCC is assigned an appropriate systematically organized computer-processable collection of medical terms (SNOMED CT) concept ID that provides definitions used in reporting and used to describe specific procedures, specimens, and morphologic abnormalities, while other content is still in the process of being assigned; not all concepts are eligible for encoding.
A summary of service contract deliverables, including measurable outcomes required of the Contractor to be monitored by the department in compliance with Section III (B)(7) of the Purchasing Policy include CCRMC’s access to CAP eCC within the Epic Beaker Anatomic Pathology System. This Contract Amendment was approved by Health Services Personnel to ensure there is no conflict with labor relations.
On April 24, 2023, the Board of Supervisors approved End User Integrated Product License Agreement (County Contract #23-796) with The College of American Pathologists in an amount not to exceed $6,480, for a cancer treatment protocol database for the period from June 1, 2023, through May 31, 2028. This was the initial contract with the contractor and includes a provision for exclusive jurisdiction with resolution only in the US Federal Courts in the Southern District of New York, or New York State Courts located in New York, New York. The contract obligates the County to indemnify the vendor for any claims arising out of County’s use of the product in a manner inconsistent with the agreement. The contract limits the vendor’s liability to the amount paid by County in the twelve months preceding any claim.
Approval of this Contract Amendment will increase the Contract payment limit and clarify that the term of the agreement shall automatically renew for successive one-year renewal term(s) until terminated by the terms of the Contract, approving funding for Contractor to continue to provide its cancer treatment protocol database to CCRMC through May 1, 2028.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If this Contract Amendment is not approved, the payment limit will not be increased, and the Contractor may suspend services; per Section 11.2 (Termination of Cause) of the agreement, thus resulting in a negative effect on patient care and outcomes.