Hospital Acquired Conditions/Readmissions ReductionGrant Guidelines 2014-15

The Wisconsin Office of Rural Health is accepting proposals for theHospital Acquired Conditions/Readmissions Reduction Grant Program. We will award grants up to $5,000 to rural hospitals with less than 50 staffed beds to develop and implement a plan to reduce avoidable readmissions and/or hospital acquired conditions (HAC). We are interested in proposals that are innovative and that have the potential for replication in other hospitals.

Preventing avoidable hospital readmissions and reducing HACs, e.g., infection or injury, are increasingly gaining attention, not only as health care quality issues, but also due to their financial impact on hospitals and health systems. While a patient may return to the hospital for legitimate reasons, many admissions are avoidable and may be an indicator of poor care or a missed opportunity to provide better care. Avoidable readmissions may occur for a variety of reasons: patients are discharged prematurely, are discharged to inappropriate settings, or do not receive adequate information or resources to ensure continued progress in their recovery. Hospital acquired conditions can have a significant negative impact on a patient’s health and recovery while leading to increased treatment costs. These conditions include injury or error (medication errors, falls) and infection (catheter infection, cold/flu). This grant program is designed to assist hospitals in addressing these problems.

Eligible grant activities could include conducting a needs assessment to identify specific areas or practices to target, designing and implementing policies to avoid patient injury and error, implement practices to reduce infections or purchase necessary equipment to achieve readmission and HAC goals.

Please note: Our goal is to assist as many hospitals as possible with limited resources. Hospitals that received an HAC/Readmissions Reduction Grant in 2013-14 are not eligible to apply this year. This policy allows us to provide limited program funding to more hospitals.

Proposal Format

Include the following information in your proposal:

  • Cover sheet (See below. This will not be included in the page count)
  • Executive Summary: A brief description of a readmission or HACconcern in your hospital and how you will use grant funds to address it.
  • Problem Identification: Provide information on the readmission/HAC concern in your hospital. This could include the number of incidents, impact on patients, financial impact, etc. Use quantitative data to illustrate the problem.
  • Work Plan: Describe the activities or practices you will develop and implement to address the problem you have identified. Include a completion date for each activity.
  • Evaluation Plan: Measures and methods you will use to track project outcomes. How will you know your project has been successful? And how will you measure that?
  • Budget: Use the format below. No match or in kind is required. Include a narrative describing how you will spend funds in each category, relating them to your Work Plan. The budget narrative should include a discussion of sustainability; how you will fund this program after the grant period ends August 31, 2015.
  • Key staff who will work on designing and implementing your project. Include 1-2 paragraphs on their background and qualifications.

The proposal should be no longer than fivepages, not counting the cover sheet. Prepare your proposal using Microsoft Word (do not submit the proposal in pdf format). Text should be single spaced and standard font (for example, Times New Roman 12) and margins (1”).

Submitting the Proposal and Award Process

Email your proposal to Kevin Jacobson, by 3:00 pm July 30.

Office of Rural Health staff and external partnerswill review proposals and make final award decisions. The grant period is September 1, 2014 through August 31, 2015.

If your proposal is accepted for funding, the University of Wisconsin-Madison will send a sub-contract agreement to the contact person for review and signature. When the agreement is fully executed through the University, UW Purchasing will send invoicing instructions to the contact person. You should not begin projects until the grant agreement is fully executed. We anticipate this will be in September. You will submit a brief mid-year progress report and a final report describing your activities and outcomes, based on your evaluation plan. Your proposal and reports will be posted on the Office of Rural Health website. This is a reimbursable grant; you will submit invoices on a regular basis to the University of Wisconsin for reimbursement. All grant funds must be spent by August 31, 2015. There is no carryover provision. If you are selected for a grant, you will be expected to participate in a webinar after the grant period to present on your project and results.

Contact Information

Kevin Jacobson
Wisconsin Office of Rural Health
310 N. Midvale Blvd. Suite 301
Madison, WI 53705
608-261-1888

Budget

This is the required format for your project budget. You may insert or delete rows as necessary. You are not required to have expenses in every category. Include a brief description of each item, e.g., X hours of work at $10.00/hour, 75 miles @ $.51. Expand on the descriptions in aseparate budget narrative, explaining how expenses relate to your Work Plan. Federal funding guidelines prohibit spending grant funds on food and drinks. Equipment here is defined as anything you expect to use beyond the end of the grant period. Supplies are items you will use or consume during the grant period.

BUDGET CATEGORY / DESCRIPTION / AMOUNT REQUESTED
Wages
Fringe Benefits
Travel (use mileage rate of $.51/mile)
Equipment
Supplies
Consultants/ Contracts
Other
TOTAL

Wisconsin Rural Hospital Flexibility Program

Hospital Acquired Conditions/Readmissions Reduction Grant 2014-15

APPLICATION COVER SHEET

Project Title: / Grant Amount Requested:
Applicant Organization (who will contract with the University of Wisconsin)
Legal Name:
Address:
Phone: / Fax:
Administrator, Executive Director, or CEO
Name: / Title:
Phone: / Email:
Person authorized to sign the contract
Name: / Title:
Phone: / Email:
Project Contact Person
Name: / Title:
Organization:
Phone: / Email:

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