Call for Proposals: Outreach to Under-Connected Health Organizations, Summer 2011

Posted by nwsoadmin on June 13th, 2011 Posted in: Funding, News From NNLM PNR

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Hello Pacific Northwest Region!

We are excited to announce a new funding opportunity from the NN/LM PNR to support outreach to under-connected health organizations.

The HITECH Act of 2009 mandates that priority primary care providers reach meaningful use of electronic health records by 2014-2015 in order to receive incentive payments and avoid penalties. Priority primary care providers are those that are in inner city or rural, underserved areas, and those that serve largely uninsured or underinsured populations.

The purpose of this award is to encourage improved access to evidence based resources by underserved healthcare employees at public and critical access hospitals and community health centers receiving technical assistance by Regional Extension Centers (RECs) for implementing health IT and using it in a meaningful way to improve care.

It is expected that the work carried out via this award will:

• encourage Network members to share their expertise with health IT staff as well as salaried employees at public and critical access hospitals and community
  health centers who are dedicated to providing access to health information resources (e.g., health educators, outreach workers, caseworkers, community advocates);
• strengthen the role of health information and health literacy promotion in the delivery of health care at under-connected health organizations reached;
• promote funding to upgrade and maintain technology access for identified health information needs in health organizations without onsite access to NLM resources
• increase use of current and emerging technologies, and the effective use of evidence-based health information resources in electronic health records (EHRs), by under-connected health organizations served by RECs;
• develop or support local or regional partnerships with RECs by the Network member awarded this funding;
• promote awareness and use of the services, products and resources of NLM and the NN/LM, as well as other quality online health information resources, by health professionals and health care consumers.

Up to two (2) subcontracts of up to $25,000 each are available to NN/LM member organizations in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. This funding can be used for:

• personnel costs to carryout the project;
• mobile technology, computer hardware, or other hardware for training and demonstrations;
• travel costs to conduct assessments, site visits and trainings

Consideration of requests for funding will begin on August 10, 2011. Proposals should be submitted using the Outreach to Under-Connected Health Organizations Application form .

For additional information, see the official funding announcement or contact Cathy Burroughs, NN/LM PNR Associate Director, at cburroug@u.washington.edu, 1-800-338-7657.