Proposed Program Requirements and Review Criteria for a Cooperative Agreement for a Center for Health Workforce Distribution Studies: A Federal-State Partnership Cooperative Agreement Program for Fiscal year 1997

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Health Resources and Services Administration

Proposed Program Requirements and Review Criteria for a

Cooperative Agreement for a Center for Health Workforce Distribution

Studies: A Federal-State Partnership Cooperative Agreement Program for

Fiscal year 1997

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announces

that applications will be accepted for a fiscal year (FY) 1997

Cooperative Agreement for a Center for Health Workforce Distribution

Studies: A Federal-State Partnership Cooperative Agreement Program. The

cooperative agreement will be funded under the authority of section 792

(42 USC 295k) of the Public Health Service Act, which authorizes

research on health professions personnel.

Research and studies for this cooperative agreement program will

focus on the workforce distributional aspects of the legislation at the

state (one or a few states) level for allied health personnel,

dentists, nurses, physicians, and public health personnel as specified

below.

A proposed three-year period of support beginning in fiscal year

1997 is anticipated, with approximately $250,000 per year. This is a

one time competition and is not expected to be an ongoing cooperative

agreement program. Applicants may request up to $250,000 per year in

total costs (direct plus indirect costs), for up to three years.

Purpose

The purpose of this cooperative agreement for a Center for Health

Workforce Distribution Studies is to support research and analysis at

the state level for one state or a few states only, including issues

regarding the impact of federal initiatives aimed at improving the

training of health professionals and meeting national workforce goals

pertaining to:

(1) Allied health data and distributional issues consistent with

the (1995) recommendations of the National Commission on Allied Health

and in close coordination with the activities of the Allied Health Data

Collaborative Project;

(2) Distribution of dentists, with emphasis on trends relating to

educational background (for example, those with postdoctoral training

in advanced general dentistry and/or public health dentistry) and

practice in settings principally serving residents of medically

underserved communities;

(3) The designation of nursing shortage areas at the state level

and, through a pilot exploration of a model approach, build a

methodologic bridge to other states for applicability across the

Nation;

(4) The distribution of physicians, with emphasis on underserved

areas and specialty services, including, for example OB/GYN, maternal

and child health, general surgery, emergency medicine, and mental

health; and addressing issues of substitution, using available tools

such as the HRSA/BHPr Integrated Requirements Model (IRM), as

applicable, and

(5) The establishment of collaboration(s) between schools of public

health and state and local public health agencies to assess public

health workforce supply and distribution and to develop educational

strategies to address imbalances; and to develop the nature of

workforce planning for public health personnel at the state level.

The cooperative agreement is to fund either the establishment and

the operation of a new research center, or the operation of an existing

research of a new research center, for the conduct of such research.

The center must conduct high-quality research and disseminate findings

to colleagues and policy-makers at the institutional, Federal and state

levels.

The successful applicant must have or establish the Center for

Health Workforce Distribution Studies as an identifiable entity. This

must be more than a set of discrete, investigator-initiated research

projects proposed in one application. The center must have a director;

a coherent, widely-recognized research agenda; and researchers who

function as a team. The principal investigator must be an experienced

researcher who will be primarily responsible for the organization and

operation of the center and will provide research leadership. The

center's researchers must collectively possess multidisciplinary

skills, and have experience in health services research. There must be

sufficient core staff with significant time commitments to the center,

although the center will of necessity share common resources with other

components of the applicant institution, including technical, clerical,

and administrative personnel, and library and computer resources.

The cooperative agreement funds will be available to provide basic

support for the center, including: the development and implementation

of the center's research agenda, administrative and research staff

support, researcher time (although not necessarily 100% of researcher

time), and dissemination of center research products through articles

in peer-reviewed journals as well as center-sponsored publications.

This cooperative agreement must not be the sole source of support for

this type of enterprise. The applicant institution must demonstrate a

commitment (including a matching contribution--see ``Program

Requirements'' below) to support the organizational and management

structure of the center, and its investigators should seek other funds

for support of its research agenda.

[[Page 39533]]

Substantial Programmatic Involvement

Personnel of the Bureau of Health Professions will have substantial

programmatic involvement with the planning, developing and

administering of the Center for Health Workforce Distribution Studies

and its outputs. The program officer will be assisted by the work in

close coordination with program staff of the divisions contributing to

this cooperative agreement. Federal guidance and involvement will

include:

1. Participating in identification of workforce study priorities;

2. Assisting in the selection of research projects. This includes,

but is not limited to, providing substantial guidance on Federal

policy-relevant issues, and issues of particular national interest,

that require research;

3. Participating in the approval of study protocols and

methodologies;

4. Participating in review and selection of sub-contracts awarded

under the cooperative agreement. If sub-contracts are awarded via a

competitive process, a representative of the Bureau will serve on the

review panel which will evaluate applications;

5. Supplying data in areas relevant to studies of the health

professions workforce. When data are not directly available from the

Bureau of Health Professions, Bureau personnel will assist in

identifying sources of data such as other Federal agencies, and

other public and private organizations;

6. Assisting with the preparation of project results for

publication in peer-reviewed journals;

7. Providing information about numerous Federal programs that

impact health workforce studies.

Eligibility

Eligible applicants include public and non-profit private entities.

The applicant must bring together allied/dental/medical/nursing/public

health schools and state agencies, must have experience in all five

component areas, the assessment and evaluation of unmet need/

underserved areas, and in issues of non-physician provider

substitution, and must have access to the allied and public health

workforce data base in the state. Development of a methodology for the

assessment of nursing shortage areas and of public health requirements

and supply in a state must involve a state agency.

Proposed Program Requirements

The award recipient's institution must share in the cost of the

program as follows: For each year funds are awarded under this program,

the matching contribution shall be at least one-third of the amount of

the Federal award for that year. Up to 50% of the recipient's matching

contribution may be in the form of in-kind donations of faculty time,

staff time, use of computers or other shared resources.

Applicants are urged to submit applications that address specific

objectives of HRSA/BHPr. Health workforce surveillance reveals

significant gaps in the Nation's health workforce ability to meet the

population's needs. In some cases, these gaps are exacerbated by market

forces. The BHPr attempts to address these in its four health workforce

goals to improve the distribution, diversity, supply, and competence/

quality. Specifically,

Distribution: there has been little progress in reducing the number

of underserved areas, and access to generalist providers varies widely

across states and counties;

Diversity: few health professions reflect the diversity of the

Nation's population, also there is strong evidence that

underrepresented minority providers are more likely to serve vulnerable

populations;

Supply: shortages of some allied and public health providers

coincide with a surfeit of specialist physicians

Competance: most training is hospital-based and ill-suited to

ambulatory health care delivery, which occurs in an increasingly

managed care environment and requires skills in providing cost-

effective quality care. Also, an aging population created an unmet need

for geriatric training.

Proposed Review Criteria

Applications for this cooperative agreement will be evaluated on

the basis of the following criteria:

(1) The qualification and achievements of the proposed center's

principal investigator and senior researchers, including level of

productivity and quality of research in health workforce issues;

(2) Demonstration of an understanding of the particular subject

areas of health professions workforce research that are relevant to

Federal policies and evidence of ability to manage research in such

areas;

(3) The appropriations of the time commitments of the principal

investigator and senior researchers;

(4) The strength of the applicant's plan to actively promote

dissemination of research findings to all health professionals involved

in health services research and to relevant national and state policy

makers;

(5) The appropriateness of the proposed budget;

The planned level of commitment to the center from the applicant

institution, as evidenced by specific plans for the type of financial

support that will be offered, and for support of the organizations

structure of the center. Evidence of a prior institutional commitment

to generalizable research in health workforce studies will also be

sought;

(7) The past success and the future potential of the proposed

center's researchers in receiving funding from other sources; and

(8) The likely effectiveness of the organizational and management

arrangements to operate the proposed center.

National Health Objectives for the Year 2000

The Public Health Service urges applicants to submit work plans

that address specific objectives of Healthy People 2000. Potential

applicants may obtain a copy of Healthy People 2000 (Full Report; Stock

No. 017-001-00474-0) or Healthy People 2000 (Summary Report; Stock No.

017-001-00473-1) through the Superintendent of Documents, Government

Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402-9325 (Telephone 202-783-3238).

Academic and Community Partnerships

As part of its long-range planning, HRSA will be targeting its

efforts to strengthening linkages between U.S. Public Health Service

education programs and programs which provide comprehensive primary

care services to the underserved.

Smoke-Free Workplace

The Public Health Service strongly encourages all grant recipients

to provide a smoke-free workplace and to promote the non-use of all

tobacco products and Pub. L. 103-227, the Pro-Children Act of 1994,

prohibits smoking in certain facilities that receive Federal funds in

which education, library, day care, health care, and early childhood

development services are provided to children.

Additional Information

Interested persons are invited to comment on the proposed program

requirements and review criteria. The comment period is 30 days. All

comments received on or before August 22, 1997 will be considered

before the final program requirements and review criteria are

established. Written comments should be addressed to: Mr. B. Jerald

McClendon, Director, Office of Research and Planning, Bureau of Health

Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, Parklawn

[[Page 39534]]

Building, Room 8-47, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20857.

All comments receive will be available for public inspection and

copying at the Office of Research and Planning, Bureau of Health

Professions, at the above address, weekdays (Federal holidays excepted)

between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Application Requests

Application materials are available on the World Wide Web at

address: ``http://www.hrsa.dhhs.gov/bhpr/grants.html''. In fiscal year

1997, the Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr) will use Adobe Acrobat to

publish the grants documents on the Web page. In order to download,

view and print these grants documents, you will need a copy of Adobe

Acrobat Reader. This can be obtained without charge from the Internet

by going to the adobe Web page (``http://www.adobe.com'') and

downloading the version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader which is

appropriate for your operating system, i.e., Windows, Unix, Macintosh,

etc. A set of more detailed instructions on how to download and use the

Adobe Acrobat Reader can be found on the BHPr Grants Web page under

``Notes on this WWW Page.

For applicants who are unable to access application materials

electronically, a hard copy will be provided by contacting the HRSA

Grants Application Center. The Center may be contacted by:

Telephone Number: 1-888-300-HRSA.

FAX Number: 301-309-0579.

Email Address: [email protected].

Completed applications should be returned to: Grant Management

Officer (CFDA#), HRSA Grants Applications Center, 40 West Gude Drive,

Suite 100, Rockville, Maryland 20850.

Questions regarding grants policy and business management issues

should be directed to: Ms. Diane Murray, Grants Management Specialist,

Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services

Administration, Parklawn Building, Room 8C-26, 5600 Fishers Lane,

Rockville, Maryland 20857, Telephone: (301) 443-6857, FAX: (301) 443-

6343, Email: [email protected]

If additional programmatic information is needed, please contact:

Herbert Traxler, Ph.D., Office of Research and Planning, Bureau of

Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration,

Parklawn Building, Room 8-47, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland

20857, Telephone: (301) 443-6662 or 3148, FAX: (301) 443-8003 Email:

[email protected]

Paperwork Reduction Act

The standard application form PHS 398, Application for Public

Health Service Grant, will be used for this program and has been

approved by the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork

Reduction Act. The OMB Clearance Number is 0925-0001.

The deadline date for receipt of applications is August 22, 1997.

Applications will be considered to be ``on time'' if they are either:

(1) Received on or before the established deadline date, or

(2) Sent on or before the established deadline date and received in

time for orderly processing. (Applicants should request a legibly dated

U.S. Postal Service postmark or obtain a legibly dated receipt from a

commercial carrier or U.S. Postal Service. Private metered postmarks

shall not be acceptable as proof of timely mailing.)

Late applications not accepted for processing will be returned to

the applicant.

Dated: July 16, 1997.

Claude Earl Fox,

Acting Administrator.

[FR Doc. 97-19246 Filed 7-22-97; 8:45 am]

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