R -- Patient Safety Research Coordinating Center

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ ) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is conducting a market survey to seek potential sources from qualified small business firms under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code 54161 ($5 million) which have the capability to carry out the continued development and maintenance of a patient safety research coordinating center that will serve as a resource and support hub for integrating the various components of the Agency's patient safety initiative with one another, among Agency staff, and to some extent, among other federal and non-federal funding entities and the researchers they support. The center will support the Agency's work by providing technical assistance to grantees with respect to data collection instruments, evaluation methods, and dissemination and diffusion efforts; providing information to support the role of AHRQ project officers in monitoring the progress of projects; preparing information and draft reports for later submission by the Agency to the Congress and assisting with other publication efforts; facilitating communication and sharing of ideas and findings among the projects that take the form of organizing and providing logistical support for annual conferences, conducting quarterly telephonic conference calls among groups of grantees, conducting Steering Committee meetings composed of AHRQ project officers and principal investigators funded under the patient safety initiative, and managing and maintaining an extranet site for housing a wealth of patient safety grant and contract information; and synthesizing patient safety research findings stemming from the portfolio and developing tools and products of value to end-users responsible for improving the safety of patients. The coordinating center also shall ensure that information stemming from newly awarded patient safety grants such as those that are investigator-initiated or awarded through the Health Information Technology program are entered in a timely fashion into the coordinating center databases and that new grantees are invited to avail themselves to all the services and activities that the coordinating center offers. Prospective sources must have an understanding of recent developments in the medical error and patient safety research domains (e.g., epidemiology of error, reporting systems, clinical informatics, effects of working conditions, human factors and risk assessment methods, high reliability organizations) and be adept in working with Agency staff in managing multiple, simultaneous, large, complex projects; assisting and interacting with a highly educated group of research constituents, and in developing and maintaining communication networks, including Web site development, implementation, and maintenance. Staff must include a Project Director who shall have, at a minimum, no less than ten (10) years total work experience which includes 1) at least eight (8) years in the specialty services field (e.g., patient safety/medical error, healthcare services research methods), and 2) demonstrated skills in assisting researchers, facilitating communication networks, and synthesizing and disseminating information on a large, diverse set of patient safety projects. Interested small businesses should submit their capability statements (no more than 10 pages in length) to Mary Haines, Contracting Officer, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Division of Contracts Management, 540 Gaither Road, Rockville, MD, 20852, no later than 3:00pm eastern standard time, on March 9, 2004. Capability statements should be tailored to this request and identify the source's capabilities to complete this requirement, including information on key staff experience and education, and a description of corporate experience with similar projects. Capability statements should be submitted in an original and two (2) copies.