Request for Proposals
Solicitation No. AHRQ-01-0007 (Full and Open Competition, with recommended
small business goals).
Proposals Due: July 19, 2001 (12:00 Noon)
Contracting Office: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Division of
Contracts Management, 2101 East Jefferson Street, Suite 502, Rockville, MD
20852
The synopsis for this requirement was published in the Commerce Business
Daily on May 31, 2001. The solicitation issue date is June 18, 2001. Full
text can be downloaded from this Web page or by file transfer protocol (FTP).
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Information. Printed copies are not available. If you have any trouble
downloading this solicitation, please contact Sharon Williams, Contracting
Officer, at SWilliam@ahrq.gov.
It is anticipated that a 3-year, cost plus fixed fee, completion-type
contract will be awarded under this solicitation.
Background and Purpose:
AHRQ's FY 2001 patient safety agenda is being accomplished through a series
of grants and contracts to stimulate research and demonstrations in patient
safety and medical error reduction. The funded projects will form an integrated
set of activities to design and test best practices for reducing errors in
multiple settings of care and will develop the science base to inform those who
must implement programs and policies regarding the most effective approach to
take. This effort expands upon the Agency's current and planned activities to
reduce errors and improve the delivery of safe health care.
At the heart of this competitive research and demonstration program is a
portfolio of projects to test the effectiveness, costs, and cost-effectiveness
of diverse reporting strategies and information technology innovation on the
identification, management, and reduction of medical errors. These activities
are supported and amplified by:
- The establishment of multidisciplinary centers of excellence in
patient safety.
- Targeted efforts to understand the impact of provider education,
skills, staffing, and organization on error rates.
- 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.
- 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.
The individual projects already funded by the Agency and those to be funded
through future RFAs and contracts represent a comprehensive and coordinated
research program in the area of patient safety and medical error. The program
was designed with implicit and explicit coordination requirements between its
various components to assure synergy and complementarity between the individual
projects that will constitute the Agency's patient safety program. This is
particularly important for the Health System Reporting Demonstrations.
Although coordination of the overall patient safety program remains the
responsibility of the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS)
at AHRQ, the level of coordination support required for the patient safety
research program extends well beyond the internal capacity of AHRQ to provide
the specific services and products. Through this solicitation the Agency is
seeking logistical and coordination support for its patient safety program to
extend the capabilities of the Agency's patient safety staff.
The purpose of this contract is to support a coordinating center that will
serve as a resource and support center linking the components of the Agency's
patient safety initiative to each other and relevant Agency staff. The
coordinating center will host grantee meetings, facilitate sharing of
de-identified data, and support general program and specific project oversight.
Specifically, the coordinating center shall support the Agency's work with
grantees related to providing technical assistance to grantees, monitoring of
grantee activity, communication, conferences, dissemination of results, and
consultation for program direction and implementation policy.
In addition, the coordinating center will extend in-house capacity to
facilitate and monitor the Agency's patient safety activities. It will also
produce products (e.g., databases appropriate for research and guidelines on
data collection) that will facilitate work on patient safety by researchers and
policymakers (particularly at the state level). The coordinating center shall
also help support some of the Agency's other work related to patient safety,
such as the development of relevant patient safety materials for the National
Quality Report. As such, the coordinating center is not to provide direction and
leadership functions, but instead shall serve as a resource and support center
for the projects funded under the Agency's patient safety initiatives.
The contract objectives are to:
- Serve as a central link between the Health System Reporting
Demonstrations and other components of the patient safety initiative resulting
from grant and contract awards.
- Provide technical assistance on methods, analytic mechanisms,
dissemination, and evaluation approaches.
- Provide information to support the role of AHRQ project officers in
monitoring the progress of projects.
- Prepare draft reports for later submission by the Agency to the
Congress related to the Health System Reporting Demonstrations and provide the
Agency with information from patient safety grantees for inclusion in the
National Quality Report.
- Facilitate communication and sharing of ideas between the projects.
- Disseminate information on project activities and results among the
patient safety grantees and contract awardees and support the development of
monographs, papers, and resource materials by the Agency's Office for Health
Care Information (OHCI).
- Consult with the Agency on trends and developments resulting from
the research activities.
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Current as of July 2001
Internet Citation:
Patient Safety Research Coordinating Center. Request for
Proposals. July 2001. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
http://www.ahrq.gov/fund/contarchive/rfp010007.htm
540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850 