The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is offering a series of grants of up to $1.5 million for research projects that examine patient safety in ambulatory care and long-term facilities.
The purpose of the initiative is to develop strategies for improving care delivery in these settings and developing tools to implement those tactics, the agency said in its announcement.
"AHRQ has a specific interest in settings that serve vulnerable populations which include Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), Community Health Centers, safety-net hospital outpatient departments, physician offices and long term care facilities," the agency said. "While disparities in patient safety have been previously documented, studies have been limited with regard to study design and methods needed to generate the evidence regarding factors underlying disparities."
To that end, AHRQ also said that priority areas of focus are to improve care quality by accelerating implementation of patient-centered outcomes research, to make healthcare safer, to increase accessibility by evaluating Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage expansions, and to improve healthcare affordability, efficiency, and cost transparency.
"The studies may involve new or existing technologies that are designed or adapted to improve the ability of staff and caregivers to prevent adverse events, for example using electronic health records to improve preventive practices," the agency said. "Studies may also use current low technology approaches that provide new tools for staff and caregivers to improve prevention."
The total costs (direct and indirect) for a project awarded under this FOA will not exceed $500,000 in any given year and will not exceed $1,500,000 for the entire project period.
The earliest date for submissions is Jan. 5, 2016 and the expiration date is March 6, 2018.
