IMPROVING PATIENT SAFETY: HEALTH SYSTEMS REPORTING, ANALYSIS, AND SAFETY
IMPROVEMENT RESEARCH DEMONSTRATIONS
Release Date: February 2, 2001
RFA: RFA-HS-01-003
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Letter of Intent Receipt Date: April 2, 2001
Application Receipt Date: April 27, 2001
PURPOSE
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announces the
availability of approximately 13-14 Cooperative Agreements (U18) for up to
three years to support large demonstrations in states, health care systems,
and/or networks of providers to test reporting strategies and patient safety
interventions. With these projects, AHRQ is interested in sponsoring
research that will improve the safety of patients being cared for in a wide
variety of medical settings. This goal can be accomplished through changes
in health care delivery procedures to reduce the risk of harm to patients,
changes in public policy or public oversight of health care delivery systems
intended to foster improved safety, and the provision of information to the
public or to purchasers to encourage choices of health care providers that
will reduce risk to patients. These projects should use technology, staff
training, and other methods to reduce such errors, develop replicable models
that minimize the frequency and severity of medical errors, develop
mechanisms that encourage reporting, prompt review, and corrective action
with respect to medical errors, and develop methods to minimize any
additional paperwork burden on health care professionals. AHRQ is seeking
applications for demonstration projects that will assess the effectiveness of
various methods of collecting and using information to reduce medical errors
and their impact. It is also seeking applications that will test various
methods of informing patients (or their family members) when they have been
injured by a medical error.
By testing a variety of reporting, analysis, and implementation strategies,
AHRQ wishes to evaluate what data should be collected, how it should be
aggregated and analyzed, how it should be reported to provide useful
information to those trying to reduce patient injuries from medical errors,
and how it can be protected from unintentional disclosure. AHRQ is seeking
applications that will demonstrate and evaluate:
o A variety of methods of identifying errors or opportunities for improving
safety and reporting them to a database that promotes analysis,
understanding, and action to reduce the risk of harm to patients,
o Different concepts of what information is needed and useful in reducing
risk to patients,
o Effective methods of disseminating information to those who need the
information to improve safety through choice, oversight of, or changing the
delivery system, and
o New methods of changing the delivery system in ways that can reduce
hazards, including innovations in informatics and educational changes.
AHRQ is particularly interested in research projects that will test systems
that publicly disclose information on errors or risks and comparing those
systems to ones that are principally designed to enhance providers ability
to learn to prevent errors. It is also interested in the feasibility of
different methods of electronic data collection and analysis that will
facilitate the processing and use of large amounts of data. AHRQ expects
that, to the extent possible, with the data collected, each funded grant team
will use the data to examine segments of the population that may be
especially at risk for injuries from medical errors. For example, people
with chronic conditions requiring frequent interaction with the health care
system, people with limited English proficiency children, or people living in
rural areas with limited access to certain technologies or health
professionals may be more vulnerable to some kinds of error (e.g., missed
diagnoses, misdiagnoses, incorrect therapies being applied, therapies being
applied incorrectly, failure of communication to other caregivers, failure of
communication with the patient or family, etc.). In addition to the broader
information dissemination, AHRQ is interested in testing various approaches
to informing the patients or their family members when they have been injured
by an error.
AHRQ is interested in providing resources to evaluate the effectiveness of
existing systems or systems that will be functional within a few months of
receipt of funds, rather than in supporting their development. AHRQ
anticipates that the principal use of funds from this solicitation will be to
enable a comprehensive evaluation of the existing systems and proposed
applications of or changes to the systems to enable them to more effectively
collect, analyze, disseminate, and act on the information collected.
Infrastructure and data collection to facilitate the evaluation, to the
extent necessary, can be funded under this RFA. AHRQ also expects the
funded organizations to have or develop a plan for sustaining the reporting
system and all its component parts once the grant expires.
This Request for Applications (RFA) is one in a series of research
solicitations to be issued by AHRQ over the next several months. They form
an integrated set of activities to design and test best practices for
reducing errors in multiple settings of care, develop the science base to
inform these efforts, improve provider education to reduce errors, capitalize
on the advances in information technology, translate proven effective
strategies into widespread practice, and build the capacity to further reduce
errors. At the heart of the competitive demonstration program described in
this request for applications is a portfolio of projects to test the
effectiveness, cost, and cost-effectiveness of diverse reporting strategies
and information technology application and innovation on the identification,
management, and reduction of medical errors. These activities are supported
and amplified by: 1) the establishment of multidisciplinary centers of
excellence in patient safety, 2) targeted efforts to understand the impact
of provider education, skills, staffing, and organization on error rates, 3)
partnerships with health systems, professional organizations, states, and
other groups to build capacity for error reduction activities, disseminate
effective strategies, and coordinate public and private efforts, and 4)
cross-cutting activities that capitalize on data already collected by the
Federal government which can be enhanced to support research and action in
patient safety.
Other RFAs to be released as part of this program include:
1) Clinical Informatics to Promote Patient Safety (CLIPS) -- to develop and
test the use of appropriate technologies to reduce medical errors, such as
hand-held electronic medication and specimen management systems and
prescription pads, training simulators for medical education, bar-coding of
prescription drugs, patient bracelets, and automated dispensing of medication
in a hospital setting.
2) Centers of Excellence for Patient Safety Research and Practice -- to
support established cross -- cutting teams of researchers and health care
facilities and organizations in geographically diverse locations (including
rural and urban areas) which will determine the causes of medical errors,
develop new knowledge to support the work of the demonstrations.
3) Developmental Centers for Evaluation and Research in Patient Safety
(DCERPS) -- to develop new multidisciplinary research teams to improve the
nations capacity in patient safety research, to expand the patient safety
knowledge base, and to establish mechanisms to assure that new knowledge is
incorporated into actual practice and that its impact is assessed.
4) Effect of Working Conditions on Patient Safety -- to develop an
understanding of how the environment of care impacts the ability of providers
to improve safety (e.g. the effect of fatigue, stress, sleep deprivation, and
shift work on cognitive ability and the relationship to patient safety) and
how interactions with the built environment impact the provision of safe
care.
5) Patient Safety Research Dissemination and Education -- to fund
researchers and organizations (e.g., professional associations, hospital
groups, national organizations) to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate new
approaches to improving provider education in order to reduce errors, such as
teaching new knowledge on patient safety and developing curricula, continuing
education, simulation models, and other provider training strategies.
Additional components of the Agency’s patient safety initiative will build on
existing Agency programs. AHRQ will also support a coordinating center to
provide guidance and facilitate interaction among the entities funded under
the Agency’s patient safety programs. The coordinating center will not be
one of the funded demonstration projects, but rather a separate entity under
contract with AHRQ. The coordinating center will encourage the transition of
new knowledge from the research centers and informatics projects to the
demonstration sites.
Research themes under this RFA and others to be released by the Agency will
be generated by a variety of activities including public and private sector
national summits and research agenda- setting activities on medical errors
and patient safety, as well as key stakeholder meetings. Research themes will
also be the outgrowth of ongoing activities of the Quality Interagency
Coordination Task Force (QuIC) and its report to the President -- Doing What
Counts for Patient Safety - Federal Actions to Reduce Medical Errors and
Their Impact (http://www.quic.gov). In carrying out its responsibilities,
the National Forum for Health Care Quality Measurement and Reporting may also
influence themes for this research initiative. AHRQ sponsored a National
Summit on Medical Errors and Patient Safety Research on September 11, 2000
and a follow up discussion with provider associations on November 30, 2000.
A summary of the summit and the research agenda that was developed based on
this input are available at http://www.quic.gov/summit/resagenda.htm.
HEALTHY PEOPLE 2010
The Public Health Service (PHS) is committed to achieving the health
promotion and disease prevention objectives of Healthy People 2010, a PHS-
led national activity for setting health improvement priorities for the
United States. AHRQ encourages applicants to submit grant applications with
relevance to the specific objectives of this initiative. Potential applicants
may obtain a copy of Healthy People 2010" at
http://www.health.gov/healthypeople/.
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
Applications may be submitted by domestic, public and private non-profit
organizations, including universities, clinics, health care systems, health
plans, professional societies, clinician networks, units of State and local
governments, and eligible agencies of the Federal government. Applications
may include foreign components, but foreign organizations are not eligible to
apply. Under recently enacted reauthorization legislation, AHRQ is authorized
to enter into cooperative agreements with for-profit organizations as well as
with public and not-for-profit entities. Thus, for-profits organizations are
invited to respond to this notice with research applications for cooperative
agreements. Applications will be administered in accordance with 45 CFR Part
74 and 42 CFR Part 67 Subpart A. The latter regulation was amended on
December 6, 1999, and reflects changes in Agency name and authority. (See
AHRQ reauthorization at http://www.ahrq.gov/hrqa99a.htm.) Organizations
described in section 501(c)4 of the Internal Revenue Code that engage in
lobbying are not eligible.
AHRQ encourages women, members of racial and ethnic minority groups and
persons with disabilities to apply as Principal Investigators. Special
preference will be accorded to applications from investigators who have not
been funded by AHRQ as a Principal Investigator within the last two years.
AHRQ also encourages minority institutions to apply for funding under this
RFA, and encourages collaboration on projects between minority institutions
and non-minority institutions. Minority institutions have had a significant
role in delivering health care to underserved communities and represent a
valuable resource to facilitate collaboration with those communities. A
partnership between a minority institution and an institution with
substantial research experience is encouraged for this RFA.
AHRQ’s recent reauthorization, the Health Care Research and Quality Act of
1999, directed AHRQ to focus more extensively on a number of priority areas
and populations: inner-city areas, rural areas, including frontier areas,
low-income groups, minority groups, women, children, the elderly, and
individuals with special health care needs, including individuals with
disabilities and individuals who need chronic care or end-of-life health
care. AHRQ strongly encourages applicants for these demonstration projects
to indicate if their data collection, analysis, or safety improvement
strategies will permit them to focus on one or more of these areas and
populations.
AHRQ also encourages practice-based research networks (PBRNs) to submit
applications focusing on medical errors and patient safety efforts in
community-based ambulatory practice sites. Funds will be set aside
specifically to support ambulatory care network applications, and proposal
abstracts should indicate the network’s intention to apply for these funds
(see FUNDS AVAILABLE). For the purpose of this RFA, an ambulatory care
network is defined as a group of 10 or more ambulatory practices devoted
principally to the care of patients, affiliated with each other (and often
with an academic or professional organization) in order to investigate
questions related to community-based practice. This definition includes a
sense of ongoing commitment to the research endeavor and an organizational
structure that transcends a single study. Applications may be submitted by
ambulatory networks composed of primary care and/or specialty clinicians.
See further details under Special Requirements.
MECHANISM OF SUPPORT
The administrative and funding instrument to be used for this program will be
a cooperative agreement (U18), an "assistance" mechanism (rather than an
"acquisition" mechanism), in which substantial AHRQ scientific and/or
programmatic involvement with the awardee is anticipated during performance
of the activity. Under the cooperative agreement, the AHRQ purpose is to
support and/or stimulate the recipient"s activity by involvement in and
otherwise working jointly with the award recipient in a partner role, but it
is not to assume direction, prime responsibility, or a dominant role in the
activity. Details of the responsibilities, relationships and governance of
the study to be funded under cooperative agreement(s) are discussed later in
this document under the section Terms and Conditions of Award.
The total project period for applications submitted in response to the
present RFA may not exceed three years. The anticipated award date is
September 28, 2001.
This RFA is a one-time solicitation. AHRQ has not determined whether or how
this solicitation will be continued beyond the present RFA.
Note that the scope of this initiative and the capacity-building aspects of
the U18 allow new investigators and institutions to be drawn together to work
collaboratively with a team of experienced researchers. AHRQ particularly
encourages collaboration with researchers from Historically Black Colleges
and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and other minority and
minority serving institutions.
FUNDS AVAILABLE
AHRQ expects to award up to $25 million in total costs (direct costs plus
facilities and administrative costs) in fiscal year 2001 to support the first
year of approximately 13 to 14 projects under this RFA. It expects to
award similar amounts for the duration of the projects. The actual number of
applications funded is dependent on the number of high quality applications
and their individual budget requirements, it is not the intent of AHRQ that
the awards be equal in size. Applicants seeking to submit budgets in which
direct costs will exceed $2 million in any year of the project must call
Nancy Foster (See Inquiries) for prior approval. Applications seeking
budgets in which direct cost exceed $ 2 million that do not have prior
approval will be returned without review. Representatives of recipient
demonstration projects will meet with Center for Quality Improvement and
Patient Safety (CQuIPS) staff and the coordinating center staff up to 3 times
each year. Budget requests should therefore include travel expenses for that
purpose.
Although this program is provided for in the financial plans of AHRQ, awards
pursuant to this RFA are contingent upon the availability of funds for this
purpose. Funding beyond the initial budget period will depend upon annual
progress reviews by AHRQ and the availability of funds.
It is anticipated that at least two awards will be made for projects that
look explicitly at medical errors and patient safety in office-based
settings. These awards will total approximately $2 million (including direct
and indirect costs) per year out of the $25 million in support of this RFA.
Should additional funds become available, however, and if AHRQ receives a
sufficient number of meritorious applications, AHRQ reserves the right to
fund additional applications under this RFA.
Terms and Definitions
The following terms, definitions, and explanations are provided for purposes
of this RFA, and may not be wholly consistent with other organizations use
of the terms:
o Medical error - The failure of a planned action to be completed as
intended or the use of a wrong action to achieve an aim. Errors can include
problems in practice, products, procedures, and systems. (See Ref #1)
o Adverse events - Undesirable and unintended incidents in care that may
result in adverse outcomes or may require additional care efforts to thwart
an adverse outcome.
o Adverse outcomes - Undesirable and unintended outcomes of care such as
death, disability, or temporary disability.
o Clinical responses to errors - Data systems may collect information on
clinical responses to errors, such as the number of times an antidote was
given or a measure intended to counter an unintended consequence was used.
o Dangerous situations - Where both human and latent failure exist that
create a hazard increasing the risk of harm, this is a dangerous situation.
Information may be collected from individuals familiar with the process of
care in organizations about conditions that are highly likely to cause an
injury to a patient or patients.
o Errors - The failure of a planned action to be completed as intended or
the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim. Errors can include problems in
practice, products, procedures, and systems. (See Ref # 2)
o Hazard - Anything that can cause harm. (See Ref # 3)
o Near Misses - As defined by Van der Schaaf, (See Ref # 4) these are
events in which the unwanted consequences were prevented because there was a
recovery by identification and correction of the failure. Such a recovery
could be by a planned or unplanned barrier.
o No harm events - Events that have occurred but resulted in no actual harm
although the potential for harm may have been present. Lack of harm may be
due to the robust nature of human physiology or pure luck. An example of
such a benign event would be the issuing of an ABO incompatible unit of blood
for a patient, but the unit was not transfused and was returned to the blood
bank.
o Preventable adverse events - A subset of adverse outcomes that are judged
to have been avoidable if appropriate and reasonable steps had been taken.
An anaphylactic reaction to penicillin is an adverse event. It is a
preventable adverse event if the patient’s intolerance of penicillin is noted
in his or her chart and that chart is available to the clinician, or if the
patient knows of his or her reaction to penicillin and is able to communicate
it to the clinician. Reporting systems that are intended to collect
preventable adverse events must have a definition of what is considered
preventable.
o Positive sentinel events - Information may be collected about situations
in which a patient’s care is unexpectedly successful, and investigations may
lead to discoveries about why other patients care does not go as smoothly.
o Risk - The likelihood that somebody or something will be harmed by a
hazard, multiplied by the severity of the potential harm. (See Ref # 3)
o Sentinel events - Events in which death or serious harm to a patient has
occurred.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Background
In late 1999, AHRQ’s reauthorization language specifically directed the
Agency to conduct and support research and build public-private partnerships
to (1) identify the causes of preventable health care errors and patient
injury in health care delivery, (2) develop, demonstrate, and evaluate
strategies for reducing errors and improving patient safety, and (3)
disseminate such effective strategies throughout the health care industry.
The Agency’s FY01 appropriation directs it to conduct health system
demonstration projects that study the effectiveness of mandatory and
voluntary reporting systems, the effectiveness of efforts to ensure providers
tell patients or their family members when the patient had been injured by a
medical error, and the use of information technologies, professional
education, and other mechanisms to enhance the safety of medical care. (See
Ref # 5)
When the President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality
in the Health Care Industry presented its Final Report to the President of
the United States Quality First: Better Health Care for All Americans (1998),
reduction of medical errors was listed as one of its top priorities. Much
attention to the issue of medical errors has arisen since the publication of
the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report: To Err Is Human in November 1999
(See Ref #6), and the subsequent articles in the medical literature and the
popular press. The Institute of Medicine highlighted one critical aspect of
health care quality -- the ability of the system to render care to the
patient without causing injury in the process. The IOM’s report synthesized
the available evidence on patient safety and noted that medical errors are a
leading cause of death and injury. (See Ref # 6) It called for rapid and
sustained action to reduce the incidence of patient injury and death due to
mistakes in the care that was given. The IOM recommended that actions to
improve safety be based on information about the underlying causes of the
errors. The IOM’s report acknowledged there is a need for reporting systems
that aim to collect information on medical mistakes, such as the Joint
Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organization Sentinel Event
reporting system, state-based reporting systems, the Food and Drug
Administration’s Adverse Drug Event Reporting System, and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention’s National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance
System. One researcher cited by the IOM notes that error in medicine is
real and common . (See Ref # 7)
The IOM concluded that, in the main, errors are the result of problems in the
system of health care delivery, not the fault of incompetent or malicious
individuals. The IOM outlined four critical steps in reducing the risk to
patients from errors in health care delivery. They are: 1) create a
national focus on medical error and institute leadership for improving care,
2) develop systems to collect information on errors that are occurring and
learn from those mistakes to reduce errors for other patients, 3) raise
expectations about the performance of the health care system, and 4)
institute safer practices in the delivery of health care.
Within days of the IOM report’s issuance, President Clinton called on the
Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force (See Ref # 8) to review the
report and to tell him what the Federal agencies could do to reduce health
care errors. The QuIC sent its report back to the President, Doing What
Counts to Improve Patient Safety: Federal Efforts to Reduce Medical Errors
and Their Impact, in February 2000, (a QuIC report citation) ,
http://www.quic.gov and it articulated more than 100 actions the Federal
agencies could take to reduce health care mistakes. The QuIC’s report was
framed in terms of the IOM’s recommended four steps to improving patient
safety. Of particular note for the purposes of this Request for
Applications, the QuIC promised that research would be conducted to identify
the most effective methods for collecting and using information on the errors
currently occurring in the health care system to identify safety hazards.
From the example of other industries and some preliminary work in health
care, it is clear that having a good base of information that leads to the
identification of safety hazards is necessary, but not sufficient. The QuIC
also promised that research would be conducted to study potentially effective
methods of reducing errors and preventing harm to patients. In addition, the
QuIC’s report recognized that the patient who is harmed by an error or his or
her family members have the right to be told when an error has occurred that
has resulted in harm to the patient. This RFA also seeks to test effective
methods of communicating that information.
Thus, the focus of this solicitation is the evaluation of error reporting
systems that can collect and analyze data to identify risks to patient safety
and develop effective methods of providing that information to providers,
purchasers, policymakers and the public who can use it to improve safety
through interventions like education, use of incentives, reorganization of
work, introduction of new tools, the redesign of processes, changes in
policies or purchasing strategies, or through their own choice of providers.
AHRQ is specifically interested in the following questions:
o What information is most useful in preventing injuries to patients?
o What types of reporting systems are best for collecting the needed
information?
o What types of analyses can turn the reported data into useful information
for improving patient safety (e.g., root cause analyses of single incidents,
data sorting for common causes, human factors analyses)?
o What reports can be produced, how reports should be formatted and
transmitted, and to whom should they be sent to prompt action that will
reduce the risk of avoidable harm to patients?
o What type of information is most useful to providers in informing their
actions to alter health care delivery practices, processes, procedures, and
systems to reduce risk to patients?
o What type of information is most useful to those providing public
oversight so that they can act to reduce risk to patients?
o What type of information is most useful to individuals who wish to act to
reduce their own risk and to those who may act on behalf of a large group of
individuals, such as purchasers?
o What protections are effective in protecting the privacy and
confidentiality of the data from unintended disclosure?
o What information is most useful to those who have been injured during
their medical care and how can that information best be delivered?
Particularly, what errors do patients want to know about?
The IOM and many who have reviewed To Err is Human have suggested that to
improve patient safety, the United States would need a combination of
mandatory and voluntary medical error reporting systems. The IOM cited as a
model for safety improvement the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) and
its companion mandatory reporting of crashes to the FAA. The ASRS collects
information on perceptible missteps in the process that seemed to signal a
threat to safety. Some may be events that result in no harm, while others
might be near misses or result in only minor harm. Reporting systems have
proven to be extremely useful in error management in a number of industries
including aviation (See Ref # 9), nuclear power (See Ref # 10), and
petrochemicals (See Ref # 4). The data collected by these and other safety
reporting systems are, in fact, not always reports of events or errors. The
data collected by the FAA are adverse events -
-- crashes. Experts analyze the physical evidence and the reports to
determine if an error occurred and to determine the nature of the error.
To improve health care safety, reports of errors may not be the most useful
information to collect, analyze and report to the public to enhance their
decision-making or to providers to prompt changes in their systems and
process. Safety hazards can be identified from the collections of adverse
events or sentinel events, adverse outcomes, indicators that there has been a
clinical response to an adverse event or from surveys of those who work in
the system of care and who can identify dangerous situations. Demonstration
projects supported under this RFA are intended to explore what information
can be collected, how it can be used to identify the problems that are
leading to preventable adverse outcomes, and to develop and test changes that
may reduce the number of patients harmed by errors in the care they receive.
These demonstrations may include the collection of information on: medical
error, adverse events, adverse outcomes, clinical responses to errors,
dangerous situations, hazard, near misses, no harm events, preventable
adverse events, positive sentinel events, sentinel events, and other data
that will lead to the discovery of underlying systems problems that heighten
the risk to patients.
It is likely that the analysis of any of the aforementioned types of reports
can be useful in improving the safety of the health care system if they all
lead to the discovery of underlying system problems. There is some evidence
to suggest that they do. Nagel (See Ref #12) has indicated that the
underlying causes of near miss events in commercial aviation are very similar
to those associated with full-blown disasters. Kaplan, Battles, and Mercer
(See Ref # 13) confirm this finding indicating that there was no difference
in the underlying causes for near miss and adverse events in transfusion
medicine.
To date, very little research has focused on errors or adverse events
occurring outside hospitals, for example, in office practices or ambulatory
care clinics. Methodological challenges to this type of research include the
lack of reliable ambulatory documentation of medical decisions and inadequate
knowledge about the types of errors that are clinically important and most
common in ambulatory settings. Optimally, this research needs to be
conducted in multiple ambulatory sites, since findings from such studies may
be significantly influenced by particular practice settings.
Collaborative networks of office-based practices or clinics with efficient
and reliable data systems have the potential to overcome many barriers to the
study of medical errors and patient safety in ambulatory settings. Network
study populations are likely to be representative of the general public and
the clinicians involved in the network can serve as investigators or
consultants to help define common and clinically important errors or adverse
events that occur in their practices. AHRQ has recently supported the
planning and development efforts of nineteen primary care practice-based
research networks (see RFA HS-00-004, PBRNs), a few of which have developed
electronic data systems dedicated to collecting, aggregating and reporting
primary research data. Other networks across the country, including networks
composed of the ambulatory practices of specialty clinicians, also may have
the capacity to conduct research on reporting systems for medical errors and
patient safety and to test models of data analysis.
Other useful analyses of medical event reporting have been done. Barach and
Small (See Ref # 14) reviewed the literature on non-medical event reporting
systems for clues to their success. Battles et. al. (See Ref # 15)
identified what they believe to be ideal attributes of medical event
reporting systems. Kaplan et. al. (See Ref # 13) have described a
methodology to determine underlying causes of errors or events that can be
used with medical event reporting systems. Riley and Flowers (See Ref # 16)
have reviewed the attributes of the current state of reporting systems and
provided a general description and set of data on the number of reports and
types of information that is collected. A more in depth study of the most
robust of these state reporting systems is underway and likely to be released
at the end of February 2001.
In addition to the collection of information, various models of analysis of
the data are to be tested by the successful applicants to this RFA. In some
of the current systems, reporters are asked to identify the underlying causes
or potential causes of errors. In others, including the aviation reporting
systems, those filing reports are not asked to identify what the error was or
its root cause, because they may not know or be able to know from their
vantage point. For example, a pilot may report that while taxiing at an
airport, his plane was shaken by a jet blast from another nearby airplane.
The reporting pilot is not expected to know if the incident was the result of
a misstep on his part, that of the other pilot, or the traffic controller, or
if it was the result of some sort of malfunction. He simply reports the
incident that is a symptom of an error of some sort. Those investigating the
incident are expected to piece together all the data and to identify
precisely what the error was and to understand if it is likely to be an
isolated event that is unlikely to reoccur or something that requires broader
attention. If it is the latter, then information on what the error was, the
underlying causes of the error and recommended steps to be taken to reduce
the potential for reoccurrence are disseminated to airlines, airport
personnel, and others who are able to act on it. The public is most likely
to be told what the underlying cause is and what steps have been taken to
reduce the likelihood that they will be imperiled.
A particular area for investigation within the context of this RFA is to
understand what information should be given to the patients who are injured
or their family members. A recent article in the Times - Picayune (See Ref #
17) about the results of the mandatory communication of information to people
who had been injured by their care at the Veterans Administration Hospital
in Lexington, KY suggests that patients and the organization both benefit
when providers informed their patients of the errors. A recent survey
conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and AHRQ indicates that 73% of
Americans favor some public disclosure of patient safety events. (See Ref #
18)
What patients want to know once an injury has been sustained may be different
than what they want to know in general about the safety of the providers,
hospitals, and other health care delivery organizations they use. Although
not directly related to errors, Levinson and Miller (See Ref # 19) have
suggested that patients may not want to know some things about their
provider, even when those things may affect the care they receive.
Discovering more about what people want to know about patient safety before
an encounter with a clinician or health care organization, and what they want
to know if they (or a loved one) are injured is part of the purpose of this
RFA.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
Applicants must be able to demonstrate that within their own organization, or
the team formed for purposes of this demonstration, they can: 1) collect,
analyze, and communicate information that will help to identify risks from
medical care in health care systems, 2) test applications of potentially
safer approaches to the delivery of care, and 3) document the effectiveness
of the data collection system in collecting and using information, and
testing interventions. The applicant must be able to document that the data
collected will be from more than 10 hospitals, health delivery organizations,
clinics, nursing homes or other health care delivery sites. Partnerships
with other entities are encouraged under this RFA to ensure that the
applicant has the capability to accomplish all of the research aims. This
may include partners with established research capacity in data collection or
patient safety research, such as the existing state data collection agencies,
Peer Review Organizations funded through the Health Care Financing
Administration, the Veterans Affairs Centers of Safety, and AHRQ’s seven
Centers for Education on Research and Therapeutics (CERTs).
To achieve the goals that have prompted AHRQ to issue this solicitation, all
applicants must be able to show that:
1. They can collect data on medical errors, preventable adverse events, or
other aspects of patient safety in hospitals, office-based practices, or
other health care settings - Applicant organizations need to demonstrate that
they have an existing mechanism for collecting data to improve patient safety
or could have such a mechanism fully functional by July 1, 2001. This
mechanism must, at a minimum, be able to collect information that will help
to improve patient safety either through public disclosure that helps people
choose safer health care providers or through feedback about hazards to
providers or oversight organizations.
o Specify the type of errors they will be collecting, the mechanisms they
will use to collect the information, the potential deterrents to reporting
that they anticipate, and how they will seek to overcome the deterrents. The
Institute of Medicine suggested that mandatory and voluntary reporting
systems for medical errors needed to co-exist, serving somewhat different
purposes in the effort to improve health care safety. The Department of
Veterans Affairs has instituted both a mandatory and a voluntary error
reporting system for its facilities, which collect somewhat different
information and are used in different ways to improve safety. AHRQ is
interested in studying the strengths of mandatory and voluntary reporting
systems. It will seek a balance among mandatory and voluntary reporting
systems, and aims to fund at least three projects that include mandatory
reporting and at least three that include voluntary reporting. The applicant
will need to state whether its system is mandatory, voluntary, or has
elements of both (see Definitions).
o In States that have mandatory error reporting systems, must describe how
their system will interact with the mandatory system. Such applicants are
encouraged to integrate representatives of the state reporting system into
their team.
o To the extent that the applicant institutions anticipate collecting data
on errors related to drugs, devices, or blood safety, or to nosocomial
infections, the applicant institution must specify how it will ensure that
appropriate data are reported to the Food and Drug Administration (drugs,
devices, and blood product safety) and the Center for Disease Control’s
National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System.
o Data collection strategies may include incidence reporting, near miss
reporting, and/or surveillance and reporting systems for common types of
errors.
2. They can analyze the collected data to identify risks or vulnerabilities
in the delivery of care that increase the likelihood of harm to patients.
Reporting systems from other industries include analyses that use both
individual incident analyses (a.k.a., root cause analysis), data coding and
sorting strategies to look for commonalities, and other approaches. These
analyses in other error reporting systems often include individuals with
expertise in a variety of disciplines, such as human factors analysts,
epidemiologists, and experienced practitioners of the relevant professions.
Applicants must specify what techniques they will use to analyze the data,
how they will ensure that the data are protected from unintended disclosure,
and what types of information will be available from their analyses. They
must also indicate what types of expertise will be involved in their analyses
and what they expect that expertise to bring to the understanding of the
data.
3. They can protect data from unintended disclosure. These reporting
systems contain very sensitive information. Some of the information might
lead to the identification of personal health information about a particular
patient. Some will include identifying information for health care personnel
and institutions. In all cases, applicants will need to describe what steps
are being taken to prevent the disclosure of personal health information
about individual patients. In addition, applicants will need to describe
what information, if any, will be publicly accessible, how it will be made
accessible, and how they will work to ensure it is useful and presented in a
usable format to the public. In addition, the applicants need to describe
what steps they are taking to prevent unintended disclosure of information
about medical personnel or facilities. These must be in compliance with the
privacy regulations created in accordance with the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act. The final Privacy Rule was published in
the Federal Register on December 28, 2000 (65 FR 82462) and is available at
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa.html. Information about compliance with the
regulations will be made available at the technical assistance meeting on
March 16, 2001. (See APPLICATION PROCEDURES of this RFA, under section
Workshop for Prospective Applicants, for information on this meeting.)
4. They can report the information arising from the data to those who need
the information. The applicant must show that it can feed back information
from its analysis to providers, leaders of provider organizations,
appropriate policy makers, the public, or others who have the capacity to act
on the information. AHRQ is interested in organizations that will
demonstrate a variety of different feedback mechanisms, and will look for
innovative methods that are likely to capture the attention of the decision-
makers. It will give preference to applicants that have commitments from
healthcare providers, delivery organizations, and others to use the
information. Such potential users should describe what process they will use
to assess the information, determine appropriate action, and then act on the
information received.
5. The information can be used to change current practices to foster safer
health care - No reporting system is useful unless that information emerging
from the system is actually used to reduce the risk to patients. This might
be done through changes in the delivery system, selection of safer health
care providers for care of individuals, or the use of appropriate
technologies to reduce medical errors (such as hand-held electronic
medication and specimen management systems and prescription pads, training
simulators for medical education, bar-coding of prescription drugs, patient
bracelets, and automated dispensing of medication in a hospital setting), or
other means.
o Applicants intending to change the delivery of care through their data
collection and feedback must describe how they will use the information to
change practice through the training of health professionals, implementation
of new technologies, and other methods to reduce the probability of future
medical errors. They must show how they will track what provider
organizations are doing with the information emerging from the reporting
system to alter practice and affect patient outcomes.
o Applicants intending to improve safety by providing better information to
the public, purchasers, or oversight organizations must describe how they
will use the information to educate the public or other audiences, what types
of behavior changes they are expecting from the provision of the information
and how they will track what types of changes actually occur and the effect
on patient safety.
o All applicants must describe how they will test the results of the users
attempts to improve patient safety, and how they use feedback from their
users to improve the information that they make available.
6. Ambulatory care research network applicants must, in addition to
fulfilling the other requirements of this RFA, document in their applications
that they meet, at minimum, the following qualifications:
o The network includes a core of at least 10 ambulatory practices or
clinics located in the U.S. and devoted principally to the primary or
specialty care of patients.
o The network has an accepted statement of its purpose and research mission
that includes an ongoing commitment to the research endeavor.
o A director, with appropriate support staff, is responsible for most
administrative and financial functions.
o An organizational structure exists that transcends a single study,
including multiple systems of communication with and among participating
practices in the form of regularly produced newsletters, e-mail or list-
serves, conference calls, and/or face-to-face meetings of various
combinations of network members
Policy Relevance and Dissemination
Studies under this RFA are expected to contribute to our basic understanding
of effective methods of collecting and analyzing information that will lead
to increases in patient safety. Additionally, it is expected that they will
help to build capacity to answer associated questions of applied and policy
relevance and to produce information in formats useful to participants in the
formulation of public policy and changing operational behavior. Applicants
should be concrete in describing (1) the organizations most likely to use the
results of their analyses of the collected information to improve patient
safety and (2) how applicants anticipate their results being used for public
policy purposes. Proposed information dissemination strategies should not
be limited to publication in peer-reviewed journals, but may encompass a
variety of approaches, such as distribution of information through
associations of private and public officials, educating health organizations
executives, providers, payors and others in seminars, and outreach to local
media.
Data Privacy
All information about identifiable individuals or organizations obtained for
the research purpose of carrying out a demonstration project supported
pursuant to this RFA under AHRQ’s statutory authority is protected by a
federal confidentiality statute, section 924 of the Public Health Service Act
, 42 USC 299c-3(c). Under this law, the only permissible uses or
disclosures of the information are those agreed to by the subject individuals
and organizations or by those who supply the information to the researchers.
There are substantial statutory penalties (up to $10,000) for improper use or
disclosure of this information. Thus, 42 USC 299c-3(c) provides a Federal
statutory basis for resisting any Federal or state court order or subpoena to
the extent that carrying out the order or subpoena would violate the
protective restrictions of the statute. Upon request, AHRQ will provide
legal assistance in defending adherence to these statutory confidentiality
protections with respect to identifiable data obtained in carrying out Agency
research activities.
Note that identifiable data obtained by AHRQ-supported researchers is
protected by this law when it is obtained to carry out AHRQ-supported
research, but this law would not protect against access to this same
information in medical records if it were gathered and recorded there for
other purposes. If providers collect certain information solely for purposes
of this research, it should be so marked and if necessary to protect its
confidentiality, kept separately. Note also that this law does not protect
or restrict aggregate and nonidentifiable statistical or data analysis and
conclusions developed by the researchers that would not disclose information
about any identifiable individuals or establishments
Pursuant to section 924(c) of the Public Health Service Act (42 USC 299c-
3(c)), information obtained in the course of any AHRQ-study that identifies
an individual or entity must be treated as confidential in accordance with
any promises made or implied regarding the possible uses and purposes of the
data collection. In the Human Subjects section of the application,
applicants must describe procedures for ensuring the confidentiality of such
identifying information. The description of the procedures should include a
discussion of who will be permitted access to the information, both raw data
and machine readable files, and how personal identifiers and other
identifying or identifiable data will be restricted and safeguarded.
The grantee should ensure that computer systems containing confidential data
have a level and scope of security that equals or exceeds those established
by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in OMB Circular No. A-130,
Appendix III - Security of Federal Automated Information Systems. The
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published several
implementation guides for this circular. They are: An Introduction to
Computer Security: The NIST Handbook, Generally Accepted Principals and
Practices for Securing Information Technology Systems, and Guide for
Developing Security Plans for Information Technology Systems. The circular
and guides are available on the web at
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-12/handbook.pdf.
The application of these confidentiality and security standards to
subcontractors and vendors should be addressed as necessary.
Rights in Data
AHRQ grantees may copyright or seek patents, as appropriate, for final and
interim products and materials including, but not limited to, methodological
tools, measures, software with documentation, literature searches, and
analyses, which are developed in whole or in part with AHRQ funds. Such
copyrights and patents are subject to a worldwide irrevocable Federal
government license to use and permit others to use these products and
materials for government purposes. In accordance with its legislative
dissemination mandate, AHRQ purposes may include, subject to statutory
confidentiality protections, making research materials, data bases, results,
and algorithms available for verification or replication by other
researchers, and subject to AHRQ budget constraints, final products may be
made available to the health care community and the public by AHRQ or its
agents, if such distribution would significantly increase access to a product
and thereby produce public health benefits. Ordinarily, to accomplish
distribution, AHRQ publicizes research findings through the media and other
appropriate channels in coordination with AHRQ’s Office of Health Care
Information but relies on grantees to publish research results in peer-
reviewed journals and to market grant-supported products.
Important legal rights and requirements applicable to AHRQ grantees are set
out or referenced in the AHRQ’s grants regulation at 42 CFR Part 67, Subpart
A (Available in libraries and from the GPO’s website
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/index.html).
INCLUSION OF WOMEN, MINORITIES, AND CHILDREN IN RESEARCH STUDY POPULATIONS
It is the policy of AHRQ that women and members of minority groups be
included in all AHRQ-
supported research projects involving human subjects, unless a clear and
compelling rationale and justification are provided that inclusion is
inappropriate with respect to the health of the subjects or the purpose of
the research.
All investigators proposing research involving human subjects should read the
UPDATED "NIH Guidelines on the Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects
in Clinical Research," published in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts on
August 2, 2000
(http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-00-048.html), a
complete copy of the updated Guidelines are available at
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/women_min/guidelines_update.htm: To the
extent possible, AHRQ requires adherence to these NIH Guidelines.
Investigators may obtain copies from the above sources or from the AHRQ
contractor, listed under INQUIRIES, or from the NIH Guide Website
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-00-048.html.
AHRQ also encourages investigators to consider including children in study
populations, as appropriate.
AHRQ program staff may also provide additional information concerning these
policies (see INQUIRIES).
TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF AWARD
These special Terms of Award are in addition to and not in lieu of otherwise
applicable OMB administrative guidelines, HHS grant administration
regulations at 45 CFR Parts 74 and 92, 42 CFR Part 67 Subpart A, and other
HHS, PHS grants administration policy statements. Applicants should be
familiar with the Agency’s grant regulations, 42 CFR Part 67 Subpart A, and
particularly sections 67.18-67.22.
The administrative and funding instrument to be used for this program will be
a cooperative agreement (U18), an "assistance" mechanism (rather than an
"acquisition" mechanism), in which substantial AHRQ scientific and/or
programmatic involvement with the awardee is anticipated during performance
of the activity. Under the cooperative agreement, the AHRQ purpose is to
support and/or stimulate the recipient"s activity by involvement in and
otherwise working jointly with the award recipient in a partner role, but it
is not to assume direction, prime responsibility, or a dominant role in the
activity. Consistent with this concept, the dominant role and prime
responsibility for the activity resides with the awardee(s) for the project
as a whole, although specific tasks and activities in carrying out the
studies will be shared among the awardees and the AHRQ Program Official(s).
1. Awardee Rights and Responsibilities:
Awardees will have primary and lead responsibilities for the project as a
whole, including research design and protocol development, participant
recruitment and follow-up, data collection, quality control, preparation of
publications exclusively about the data collection, analysis, information
dissemination and testing of interventions to improve safety within their
demonstration project. They will be responsible for cooperating and
collaborating with other AHRQ awardees working on patient safety improvement
with assistance from the AHRQ Program Official(s) and the coordinating center
(described below). In addition, awardees are required to cooperate with
AHRQ’s evaluation contractor that will be assessing the relative
effectiveness of the different demonstrations funded under this project.
Awardees will retain custody of and have primary rights to the data developed
under these awards, subject to Government rights of access consistent with
current Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Services, and
AHRQ policies.
Awardees must work with AHRQ and the coordinating center to develop a common
vocabulary for use across all the funded demonstration projects under this
RFA. In addition, awardees must work with AHRQ and the coordinating center
to develop a common method that will be used across all awardees to calculate
risk for patient injury. This method will be used to assess each system’s
effectiveness in reducing risk for patient injury, and so comparisons can be
made among various interventions that seek to reduce risk of injury.
2. AHRQ Staff Responsibilities
The AHRQ Program Officials for this program include the Director of the
Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS) and the project
officers for the funded cooperative agreements. They will have substantial
scientific-programmatic involvement in all matters related to developing
common vocabulary, common evaluation methods, and data collection that will
enable collaboration and comparisons of the relative strengths and weaknesses
of each funded reporting system. The dominant role and prime responsibility
for the activity resides with the awardee(s) for the project as a whole,
although specific tasks and activities in carrying out the studies will be
shared among the awardees and the AHRQ Program Officials. AHRQ program
officials may participate in the analysis of data and author or co-author
articles that compare two or more of the awardees reporting systems or the
interventions to improve patient safety.
AHRQ expects award recipients to work with each other to test the
effectiveness of various methods of collecting, analyzing, and reporting
information on patient safety. To enable these comparisons, AHRQ and the
coordinating center (described below) will work with the awardees to develop
a common method for calculating risk for patient injury so that each system’s
effectiveness in reducing risk for patient injury can be determined, and so
that comparisons can be made among various interventions that seek to reduce
risk of injury. AHRQ also expects awardees to work to enhance the ability of
an independent evaluator to review the projects and synthesize information
from the demonstrations about which methods for data collection, analysis,
and communication are most effective in improving patient safety or reducing
risks to patients.
Specifically, the (CQuIPS) within AHRQ will promote collaboration and
comparison of information gathered by the demonstrations, the sharing of
analytic methods and results, and information on effective uses of the
collected data to reduce harm to patients. AHRQ will contract with a
coordinating center to facilitate the sharing of information and to
facilitate collaborations among recipient demonstration projects. In
addition, the AHRQ-supported coordinating center will facilitate
communication and sharing of ideas between the demonstration projects and the
Agency’s funded Centers of Excellence in Patient Safety Research and the AHRQ
Developing Centers of Excellence in Research on Patient Safety. These
Centers will be charged with testing promising ideas for improvements in
patient safety. A complete description of the purpose of these Centers can
be found in the requests for applications for each, which are available at
http://www.ahrq.gov/fund.
In addition, AHRQ intends to contract with an organization to conduct an
evaluation of the demonstration projects. This evaluation organization will
not be affiliated with any of the demonstration projects or Centers. It will
be responsible for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each approach to
reporting. AHRQ will work with the demonstration projects to ensure they are
collecting information that is necessary for the evaluation. AHRQ expects
that all funded demonstration projects will cooperate with the evaluation
contractor to provide needed information.
3. Steering Committee
A Steering Committee, composed of the principal investigator of each grant,
the director of the Coordinating Center, and AHRQ Program Officials will be
the main governing board of the study and will have primary responsibility
for developing common vocabulary, research designs, facilitating the
monitoring of studies, and reporting results of comparisons between and among
the demonstration projects (including the interventions that are tested).
The principal investigator from each grant and the Coordinating Center, and
the AHRQ Program Officials will each have one vote.
Awardees will be required to accept and implement the common protocols and
procedures approved by the Steering Committee.
Principal Investigators will participate in Steering Committee meetings three
times per year and general collaborative conference calls on a schedule as
determined by the Steering Committee.
4. Arbitration
Any disagreement that may arise on scientific/programmatic matters (within
the scope of the award), between award recipients and AHRQ may be brought to
arbitration. An arbitration panel will be composed of three members -- one
selected by the Steering Committee (with the AHRQ members not voting) or by
the individual awardee in the event of an individual disagreement, a second
member selected by AHRQ, and the third member selected by the two prior
selected members. This special arbitration procedure in no way affects the
awardee"s right to appeal an adverse action that is otherwise appealable in
accordance with the PHS regulations at 42 CFR Part 50, Subpart D and HHS
regulation at 45 CFR Part 16.
LETTER OF INTENT
Prospective applicants are asked to submit a letter of intent by April 2,
2001. It should include a descriptive title of the proposed research, the
name, address, and telephone number of the Principal Investigator, the
identities of other key personnel and participating institutions, and the
number and title of the RFA in response to which the application may be
submitted.
Although a letter of intent is not required, is not binding, and does not
enter into consideration of any subsequent application, the information that
it contains allows AHRQ staff to estimate the potential review workload and
avoid conflict of interest in the review. AHRQ will not provide responses to
letters of intent.
The Letter of Intent is to be sent to:
Lisa Krever
Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
2101 East Jefferson Street, Suite 502
Rockville, MD 20852-4908
Telephone (301) 594-6625
FAX: (301) 594-2155
E-mail Address: lkrever@ahrq.gov
APPLICATION PROCEDURES
The research grant application form PHS 398 (4/98) is to be used in applying
for these demonstration grants. State and local government applicants may
use PHS 5161-1, Application for Federal Assistance (rev. 5/96), and follow
those requirements for copy submission. Applicants are encouraged to read
all PHS 398 instructions prior to preparing an application in response to
this RFA. The PHS 398 type size requirements (p. 6) will be enforced
rigorously, and non-compliant applications returned without review. In
part, the PHS 398 states that the application must be clear, readily legible,
and conform to all of the following requirements: 1) the height of the
letters must not be smaller than 10 point, 2) type density must be no more
than 15 characters per inch (cpi), and 3) no more than 6 lines of type must
be within a vertical inch. The PHS 398 application is available on the web
at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms.htm.
AHRQ is not using the Modular Grant Application and Award process.
Applicants for funding from AHRQ should ignore application instructions
concerning the Modular Grant Application and Award process and prepare
applications according to instructions provided in form PHS 398.
Beginning with applications for AHRQ submitted for the February 1, 2001
receipt date, Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval of human subjects is
not required prior to peer review of an application unless otherwise
indicated by the Agency
(http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-HS-00-003.html.
Given the nature of this project and the speed with which
successful applicants will need to begin work, the Agency has determined that
IRB approval is required prior to peer review of all applications submitted
in response to this RFA. All investigators/applicants proposing research
involving human subjects should pay particular attention to the instructions
in the form PHS 398 regarding human subject involvement.
Application kits are available at most institutional offices of sponsored
research. They may also be obtained from the Division of Extramural Outreach
and Information Resources, National Institutes of Health, 6701 Rockledge
Drive, MSC 7910, Bethesda, MD 20892-7910, telephone (301) 710-0267, E-mail:
grantsInfo@nih.gov.
AHRQ applicants may also obtain application materials from the AHRQ
Publications Clearinghouse (see INQUIRIES).
The RFA label and line 2 of the application form PHS 398 (4/98) should both
indicate the RFA number. The RFA label must be affixed to the bottom of the
face page. Failure to use this label could result in delayed processing of
the application such that it may not reach the review committee in time for
review. In addition, the RFA title must be typed on line 2 of the face page
and the YES box must be marked. The sample RFA label available at
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/label-bk.pdf has been modified to
allow for this change. Please note this is in pdf format.
The completed and signed, typewritten original of the application, including
the Checklist, and three signed, photocopies, must be submitted in one
package to:
Center for Scientific Review
National Institutes of Health
6701 Rockledge Drive, Room 1040 - MSC 7710
Bethesda, MD 20892-7710
(20817 for express service)
At the time of submission, two additional copies of the application, each
labeled Advance Copy must also be sent to:
Lisa Krever
Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
2101 East Jefferson Street, Suite 502
Rockville, MD 20852-4908
Telephone (301) 594-6625
FAX: (301) 594-2155
E-mail Address: lkrever@ahrq.gov
Applications must be received by April 27, 2001. An application received
after the deadline may be acceptable if it carries a legible proof-of-mailing
date, assigned by the carrier, and the proof-of-mailing is not later than 1
week prior to the deadline date. If an application is received after that
date, it will be returned to the applicant without review.
Application Preparation
For applications that propose to use Medicare or Medicaid data that are
individually identifiable, applicants should state explicitly in the
"Research Design and Methods" section of the Research Plan (form PHS 398) the
specific files, time periods, and cohorts proposed for the research. In
consultation with HCFA, AHRQ will use this information to develop a cost
estimate for obtaining the data. This estimate will be included in the
estimated total cost of the grant at the time funding decisions are made.
Applicants should be aware that for individually identifiable Medicare and
Medicaid data, Principal Investigators and their grantee institutions will be
required to enter into a Data Use Agreement (DUA) with HCFA to protect the
confidentiality of data in accordance with OMB Circular A-130, Appendix
III--Security of Federal Automated Information Systems. The use of the data
is restricted to the purposes and time period specified in the DUA. At the
end of this time period, the grantee is required to return the data to HCFA
or certify that the data have been destroyed. Grantees must also comply with
the confidentiality requirements of Section 903(c) of the PHS Act.
In carrying out its stewardship of human resource related programs, the AHRQ,
at some point in the future, may begin requesting information essential to an
assessment of the effectiveness of Agency research programs. Accordingly,
grant recipients are hereby notified that they may be contacted after the
completion of awards for periodic updates on publications resulting from AHRQ
grant awards, and other information helpful in evaluating the impact of
sponsored research. AHRQ expects grant recipients to keep the Agency
informed of publications or the impact from Agency sponsored research.
Complete information about the proposed strategy for data collection,
analysis, dissemination of information, and testing of interventions to
improve safety must be submitted with the application. The narrative portions
of the Demonstrations application, described below under Research Plan,
should be limited to twenty-five pages of text. The application should be a
complete document that includes all essential information necessary for its
evaluation. While additional explanatory material may be submitted as
appendices, such appendices should not be used to bypass page limitations in
the application because only selected reviewers will receive copies of the
appendices. Since the form PHS 398 was developed for research grant
applications, the following supplemental instructions should be used as a
guide in the preparation of the application.
1. Detailed Budget. In general, budget items for these research
demonstration projects can include personnel costs, consultant costs,
supplies, travel expenses for the planning director and other key personnel
to attend up to 3 meetings each year with the AHRQ-supported coordinating
center, and other justifiable operating expenses for the project. The
purchase of equipment is discouraged, but with strong justification funds may
be approved for this purpose. AHRQ plans to separately fund the coordinating
center and an evaluation contractor. Applicants may request funds for
expenses that they anticipate incurring for collecting needed data,
communicating, and other related expenses for interaction with the
coordinating center and evaluation contractor.
2. Resources available to the research demonstration project should be
described once. Applicants should follow instructions provided in the PHS
Form 398, under Resources.
3. Research Plan. This narrative part of the application should contain the
following elements:
a) Description of the purpose of the reporting system. Specify who the
intended audience(s) is (are) for the information that is developed by the
reporting system, what types of information the audience will receive, and
what types of actions to improve patient safety the information is intended
to induce. If more than one audience will receive information (e.g.,
providers and the public), indicate what information each will receive and
what types of actions might be taken by each.
b) Description of the data collection. Describe the elements of the data
collection that will form the basis of this demonstration. Specify the type
of information collected, the kinds of health delivery organizations on which
data are collected, who can report data, what, if any, mandates or incentives
to report exist, and, any proposed expansions or enhancements of the data
collection to further the goal of improving patient safety. Describe the
infrastructure that supports the data collection and any proposed
enhancements that will be needed to facilitate the improvements in patient
safety sought by the applicant as part of this project. This discussion
should include details of any computer-based or other information systems
currently in use (or planned) to collect and aggregate research data.
c) Description of the data analysis. The proposal should indicate how the
data will be sorted and how risks to patient safety will be identified. The
discussion should also include references to the existing, or proposed,
mechanisms for obtaining advice and feedback from those using the information
so that their analyses can be improved over time.
d) Description of information dissemination strategies. Indicate how
information is to be transmitted back to those audiences that are to act on
it. Indicate how frequently the information is to be transmitted, what form
it will take, whether there are opportunities for audience members to gain
greater clarity or insight into the information. If more than one audience
is to receive information, describe what information each receives and how it
will receive it.
e) Evaluation of reporting system success. Describe what data collection
exists or will be created as part of this application to know whether or not
the types of intended actions have been taken and what their impact has been.
f) Testing of improvement strategies. If the reporting system is intended
to induce change in health care practice, processes, tools, or systems of
care, indicate how the applicant team will test improvement strategies,
including professional education.
g) Description of key personnel and infrastructure for the project. The
project director and other key staff should be identified, including a
description of their qualifications and sources of salary support.
Note that letters of intent to collaborate with the applicant organization
signed by the appropriate institutional official from each participating
organization must be included in the application.
In addition, the Agency is interested in examining effective methods for
health care delivery systems and the providers of care who work within them
to communicate with the patient or his or her family member when the patient
has been harmed by a medical error. Applicant organizations are encouraged
to specify how they will provide this communication and assess the reaction
of the patients, family members, health care professionals, and health care
organizations to the sharing of this information. Funding priority will be
given to organizations proposing potentially effective methods for telling
patients and their family members and assessing the impact. In addition, the
Agency will seek to fund at least three proposals that include provision for
testing methods of telling the patients or their appropriate family members
when an error has caused harm to the patient.
If partnerships or affiliations exist or have been created for the purpose of
fulfilling the aims of this research proposal, name all of the partners,
specify the expertise, consultants, and other resources available to the
network as a result of the affiliations, and, include letters of agreement to
participate signed by individuals who have the authority to commit the
organizations. These and other letters of support should be included as an
appendix and referenced in this section of the application.
h) Progress to date in collecting and analyzing data. Include a
description of the database that exists (or is being assembled). Include
information on the kind of data included and the numbers of events currently
in the database. Describe any planned changes in this data collection.
Describe how the data are analyzed, what types of reports are currently
generated, who receives the reports.
i) Progress to date in inducing changes in behavior. Describe any formal
or informal systems or mechanisms, current or planned, to disseminate the
results of the analyses to clinicians, policy makers, and the public. Give
evidence, if any is available, that the information dissemination has had an
effect on altering the provision of care, the policies enacted, or people’s
choices of providers or other aspects of care.
Workshop for Prospective Applicants
AHRQ plans to convene a special technical assistance workshop to assist
potential applicants. The purpose of this conference is to give background
information and respond to questions of potential applicants to this RFA.
The workshop will be held at AHRQ, 6010 Executive Boulevard, 4th Floor
Conference Center, Room A, Rockville, MD, 20852 on March 16, 2001, from 9
a.m. to 11 a.m. Attendance is not a prerequisite to applying. Attendees
must pay for their own travel and accommodation costs. The workshop will be
open to any individual or organization intending to apply. Attendees are
encouraged to submit questions prior to the session. A synthesis of
pertinent Questions and Answers discussed at the prospective applicants"
meeting will be available from the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse, listed
under "Inquiries" and the agency"s web page. For further information on the
conference, contact Lisa Krever at the address listed above.
REVIEW CONSIDERATIONS
Upon receipt, applications will be reviewed for completeness and
responsiveness. Incomplete and non-responsive applications will be returned
to the applicant without further consideration. The PHS 398 type size
requirements (p. 6) will be enforced rigorously, and non-compliant
applications returned without review. Applications that are complete and
responsive to the RFA will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit by
an appropriate peer review group convened by AHRQ in accordance with the
review criteria stated below.
As part of the merit review, all applications will receive a written
critique, and also may undergo a process in which only those applications
deemed to have the highest scientific merit will be discussed and assigned a
priority score.
General Review Criteria
Applications will be assessed in two general areas: 1) technical merit of the
proposed demonstration of patient safety data collection, analysis,
information dissemination, and improvement strategies, and 2) The potential
of the demonstration to enhance its capacity to conduct patient safety
research and translate research into safety improvements. Peer reviewers
will be asked to specifically comment in these two areas. Applications that
do not address both general areas will be returned without review. The final
priority scores will reflect the peer reviewers overall assessment based on
their judgements of the following two review criteria.
1. The technical merit of the proposed demonstration of patient safety data
collection, analysis, and improvement strategies.
a) Clarity and appropriateness of objectives of the reporting system,
b) Likelihood the data collection system will receive a sufficient number
of reports to enable it to fulfill its stated mission,
c) Capacity of the reporting system to conduct appropriate analysis of the
data and to produce useful information for the intended audiences,
d) Appropriateness of the strategies for disseminating that information to
its intended users and to provide necessary assistance in interpreting the
information to those who wish to use it,
e) Capacity of the applicant to test various strategies for enhancing the
use of the information by its intended audiences,
f) In those cases where providers are a principal audience, ability of the
applicant to test appropriate care delivery interventions to reduce risk,
such as the introduction of computerized support, educational sessions for
clinicians, and process redesign,
g) Qualifications and appropriateness of the proposed project team,
especially the principal investigator, to conduct the proposed work,
h) Extent to which there is strong organizational commitment from all
partners in the applicants proposed research. This may be manifested not
only through the letters of agreement to participate, but also through future
financial support for the planning and research activities, to allow key
personnel to devote time to the project, and to facilitate communication
between the various entities,
i) Extent to which the proposed budget for the research demonstration
project supports the evaluation of the existing system so that its strengths
and weaknesses can be identified, and extent to which it offers the
opportunity to take appropriate actions to bolster the system’s
effectiveness,
j) Extent to which the proposed project is likely to be replicable or
expandable to cover other organizations and other geographic areas, and
k) Likelihood that the proposed project will help others who have or who
are considering creating data collection systems to understand how to develop
a system that will meet their intended objectives.
2. The potential of the demonstration to enhance its capacity to conduct
patient safety research and translate research into safety improvements.
a) Adequacy of the populations included in the demonstration project to
support patient safety research, and the potential for research that includes
racial and ethnic minority and/or other AHRQ priority populations,
b) Ability of the demonstration to test education strategies to improve
patient safety and examine and test appropriate care delivery interventions
to reduce risk, such as the introduction of computerized support,
c) Adequacy and stability of the demonstration’s administrative,
organizational and management capabilities, and
d) Extent to which the award of grant funds will enhance the ability of the
demonstration to conduct future activities for enhancing patient safety
research and translating research findings into practice.
The peer review group will also examine the appropriateness of the proposed
project budget to perform the stated tasks.
Additional Review Criteria for Set-aside Funds:
Applicants for the medical errors and patient safety in office-based settings
set-aside funds should explicitly note their intent to have the application
considered for those funds. In addition to the review criteria above, these
applications will be evaluated on the degree to which the project
demonstrates a meaningful collection and analysis of ambulatory patient
safety issues.
AWARD CRITERIA
Applications will compete for available funds with all other U18 applications
under this RFA. Applications deemed eligible for set-aside funds will compete
with other eligible applications for set-aside funds, and if not funded, will
compete with all other applications under this RFA. The following will be
considered in making funding decisions: 1) quality of the proposed U18 as
determined by peer review, 2) availability of funds, 3) responsiveness to
the goals and objectives of the RFA, 4) relevance to the formulation of
public policy, 5) appropriate targeting of proposed projects to the
priorities identified at the QuIC Patient Safety Research Summit,
and 6) portfolio balance, including an emphasis on Demonstration projects in
areas throughout the United States and attention to AHRQ’s priority areas and
populations.
Special preference will be accorded to applications from investigators not
recently (i.e., not within the past two years) or currently funded as
Principal Investigator of an AHRQ grant for research on quality improvement
strategies. In addition, preference will be accorded to those demonstrations
which have the potential to inform efforts to ensure injured patients or
their family members are appropriately and effectively told when they (or
their family member) has been injured during medical care.
To receive an award, applicants must agree to submit an original and 2 copies
of an abstract, executive summary, and full report of the research results in
the format prescribed by AHRQ no later than 90 days after the end of the
project period. The executive summary should be sent at the same time on a
computer disk which specifies on the label the format used (WP5.1 or WP6.0 is
preferable).
Applicants must also agree to notify Nancy Foster in CQuIPS immediately when
a manuscript based on research supported by the grant is accepted for
publication, and to provide the expected date of publication as soon as it is
known, regardless of whether or not the grant award is active or has ended.
INQUIRIES
Copies of the RFA and copies of the grant application form PHS 398 (rev.
4/98) are available from:
AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse
P.O. Box 8547
Silver Spring, MD 20907-8547
Telephone: 1-800-358-9295
TDD Service: 888-586-6340
This RFA is also available on AHRQ’s Web site, http://www.AHRQ.gov, and
through AHRQ InstantFAX at (301) 594-2800. To use InstantFAX, you must call
from a facsimile (FAX) machine with a telephone handset. Follow the voice
prompt to obtain a copy of the table of contents, which has the document
order number (not the same as the RFA number). The RFA will be sent at the
end of the ordering process. AHRQ InstantFAX operates 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week. For comments or problems concerning AHRQ InstantFax, please call
(301) 594-6344.
AHRQ welcomes the opportunity to clarify any issues or questions from
potential applicants who have obtained and read the RFA. Written and
telephone inquiries concerning this RFA are encouraged. Direct inquiries
regarding programmatic issues, including issues related to the inclusion of
women, minorities, and children in study populations to:
Nancy Foster
Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
2101 East Jefferson Street, Suite 502
Rockville, MD 20852-4908
Telephone (301) 594-1609
FAX: (301) 594-2155
E-mail Address: nfoster@AHRQ.gov
Direct inquiries regarding fiscal and eligibility matters to:
Michelle Burr
Grants Management Specialist
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
2101 East Jefferson Street, Suite 601
Rockville, MD 20852
Telephone: (301) 594-1840
FAX: (301) 594-3210
Email: mburr@ahrq.gov
AUTHORITY AND REGULATIONS
This program is described in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance No.
93.226. Awards are made under authorization of Title IX of the Public Health
Service Act (42 USC 299-299c-7) as amended by P.L. 106-129 (1999). Awards
are administered under the PHS Grants Policy Statement and Federal
Regulations 42 CFR 67, Subpart A, and 45 CFR Parts 74 and 92. This program
is not subject to the intergovernmental review requirements of Executive
Order 12372 or Health Systems Agency review.
The PHS strongly encourages all grant and contract recipients to provide a
smoke-free workplace and promote the non-use of all tobacco products. In
addition, Public Law 103-227, the Pro-Children Act of 1994, prohibits smoking
in certain facilities (or in some cases, any portion of a facility) in which
regular or routine education, library, day care, health care or early childhood
development services are provided to children. This is consistent with the PHS
mission to protect and advance the physical and mental health of the
American people.
REFERENCES
1. QuIC report to the President. Doing What Counts for Patient Safety:
Federal Actions to Reduce Medical Errors and Their Impact. February 21,
1999.
2. Quality Interagency Task Force. Report to the President: Doing what
counts for patient safety-Federal actions to reduce medical errors and their
impact. February, 2000.
3. An Organisation with a Memory: Report of an expert group on learning for
adverse events in the NHS. Department of Health, London, England. The
Stationery Office, 2000.
4. Van der Schaaf TW, Lucas DA, Hale AR, eds. Near miss reporting as a
safety tool. Oxford: Butterworth and Heinemann. 1991.
5. U.S. Public Law 106-554, Section 1(a)1.
6. Kohn LT, Corrigan JM, Donaldson MS, eds. To Err is Human, Building a
Safer Health System. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. November 29,
1999.
7. Leape LL, Woods DD, Hatlie MJ, et al. Promoting Patient Safety by
Preventing Medical Error. Journal of the American Medical Association.
280: 1444-1447, 1998.
8. QuIC report to the President. The QuIC is a body consisting of the
Federal Agencies that have health care responsibilities. It includes
organizations that provide, purchase, regulate, oversee, and conduct research
on health care. For a fuller description, see http://www.quic.gov.
9. Reynard, W.D., Billings, C.E., Cheaney, E.S., Hardy, R. The Development
of the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System. Rockville, MD: National
Aeronautics and Space Administration Science and Technical Information Branch
(NASA Reference Publication vol 1114), 1986.
10. Ives G. Near miss reporting pitfalls for nuclear plan. In: Vander
Schaaf TW, Lucas DA, Hale AR, eds. Near miss reporting as a safety tool.
Oxford: Butterworth and Heinemann, 1991:51-6.
11. Freitag, M., Hale A. Structure of event analysis. In: Hale A.,
Wilpert B., Freitag M., eds. After the event: from accident to
organizational learning. New York, Elsevier Science Ltd. 1997, 11-22.
12. Nagel ID. Human error in aviation operations. In:Weiner EL, ed. Human
factors in aviation. San Diego: Academic Press, Inc., 1988.
13. Kaplan HS, Battles JB, van der Schaaf TW, Shea CE, Mercer SQ.
Identification and classification of the causes of events in transfusion
medicine. Transfusion 1998 38: 1071-1081. 1998.
14. Barach P., Small S.D. Reporting and Preventing Medical Mishaps:
Lessons from Non-
medical Near Miss Reporting Systems. BMJ 2000, 320:759-763.
15. Battles JB, Kaplan HS, van der Schaaf TW, Shea CE. The attributes of
medical event reporting systems. Archives of Pathology Laboratory Medicine,
122:3:132-138. 1998.
16. National Academy of State Health Policymakers report (original).
17. Times-Picayune. September 26, 1999. Honesty a Policy at VA Hospital:
Aggressive Disclosure Reduces Anger, Claims. Andrea Gerlin.
18. Full Results are available at http://www.kff.org
19. Miller TE, Horowitz CR. Disclosing doctors" incentives: will consumers
understand and value the information? Health Affairs, 2000 Jul-
Aug,19(4):149-55
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