UNIT I STUDY GUIDE Identification of a Proposal Course Learning Outcomes for Unit I Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to: 1. Identify an EMS-related program for construction of a proposal that could be submitted to administrators or in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP). 2. Identify and incorporate EMS-related research in a program proposal. Reading Assignment Chapter 2: Establish the Need for Programming: Developing the Rationale Chapter 3: Establish a Research Basis for Program Design Unit Lesson At the completion of this course, you will have developed a proposal that relates to the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system. You are not limited to only proposals that address actual ambulance response or clinical care, but may consider any area that is a component or subcomponent of the EMS system. You may want to evaluate what your own organization’s needs are and use this as an opportunity to meet an objective within your own position. It is not required that you be employed by an EMS organization to complete this assignment although working within a system that you are familiar with may make it easier to address each of the various components that you will develop throughout this course. The first step in developing your program proposal is identification of an area where there is a need. Under current fiscal restraints faced by healthcare organizations, the concept of “if we build it, they will come” is not a realistic approach for testing new ventures. A needs assessment is a more reliable method for determining the potential for success for any new program or revision (restructuring) of an existing one. This stage in the planning process is known as preplanning and may take several months to complete for a true program proposal, depending on the type, cost, regulatory requirements, risk, training, and community impact of the program. Data collection is the best way to start the preplanning process. As you formulate the rationale behind your proposal, you will want to incorporate data collected to support the idea. There are several activities that are included in the data collection process. First, you must identify the target(s) of your program. Questions to consider may include geographic size or location, population size, and diversity of the population impacted. The geographic size impacted by your proposal may not necessarily reflect the population of this area depending on whether you are working in a rural or urban environment. Diversity of your target population is also important to consider as you may find that differences can impact how you structure your proposal for deployment, engagement of stakeholders, and availability. Next, you should consider characteristics of the target population such as age, educational level, gender, ethnicity, and any special circumstances that may impact your proposal’s success. Specifically, this may relate to the ability to fund the initial costs of your program as well as the ability to generate ongoing financial support. To conduct a comprehensive needs assessment, you should plan to assess the demographic characteristics of the community, analyze the problem you are trying to address, review existing programs and other providers in your target area, identify specific needs relevant to your target area or population, and inventory the existing assets you possess that could be used to meet these needs. There are commercial tools available to assist in data collection as well as free tools available through associations and other EMS 4320, EMS System Design 1 organizations that collect data as part of their own organizational mission or regulatory requirements. UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Use existing data to decrease time and effort to obtain this information as wellTitle as to maintain consistency among data collected for future considerations and measurements. When attempting to collect data, it is not uncommon to encounter some barriers. This can include outdated information, incorrect data, inadequate factual information, limited data, and reluctance of others to share existing data. In order to avoid or overcome some of these limitations, you should consider how you may identify and engage community stakeholders in the process. Your stakeholders will want to understand why you need the data, the type you anticipate collecting, tools you plan to use, how you will protect the information, how data collected will be used, and how they may receive reports on how the process is progressing. Maintaining as much transparency as possible, depending on the type of proposal you are developing, will help engender trust in you and your organization, making success more likely. Keeping in mind that not all proposals will impact communities at large, consider what defines your community. For developing an internal agency training program, your community may be limited only to those currently employed by your agency and any others that will participate in the program. In many cases, you will need to adapt assessment tools to fit your proposal’s specific needs. Regardless of what type of community you are dealing with, all proposals will impact others in some capacity. It will be up to you to identify what that population looks like and how best to assess its needs. Market analysis is another activity you will want to consider during the preplanning stage. Identify other providers offering the same type of service or program as well as the scope of services. Consider how other programs and services receive funding or ongoing financial support. You will want to evaluate the capacity of other programs and services to meet the needs of the target population, including any trends that may be identified in terms of usage or access. Use checklists and spreadsheets to document your findings for compilation and presentation for stakeholders as well as for development of potential benchmarks for your own program or service. Avoid waste when possible by inventorying existing assets. These may be one of three types: social assets, agency assets, and economic or neighborhood resources. Be as comprehensive and expansive as possible. Use multiple sources to gather data and consider community resources that may be compiled for other organizations as a potential starting point. Collecting data is very important during the preplanning process. While actual and factual data is important, it is also essential that you complete research that will offer additional support for your proposal by establishing validity or illustrating previous successes as they relate to your proposal. In the current healthcare environment, as well as in most businesses, it is important to use evidence-based, empirically based, emerging, or best practices to incorporate in your rationale in order to lend credibility, support regulations, decrease risk, or substantiate funding/reimbursement requests. Not all proposals will require or need full scale literature reviews, but it is important to identify key areas within your proposal that will most benefit from this type of research. If your program is clinically founded, other healthcare providers or organizations, as well as potential funding sources, may likely require this type of support. In order to conduct adequate quality assurance or improvement activities, you must understand what your program or service will be compared against. As healthcare continues to evolve, the ability to demonstrate quality, cost-savings, and patient satisfaction (i.e. value-based care) in clinical interventions is a requirement. Evidence-based practices are those which are founded on empirical evidence. Not all proposals will have an evidence-based practice upon which to compare; however, going forward, your data collection and monitoring for your own program or service can help establish what will be considered evidence-based in the future. Emerging practices are those which have not had adequate time and application to develop an evidencebase. They typically represent those strategies that appear promising through anecdotal observation or limited data support. Empirically guided practices are also a form of emerging practices but may not yet be tested although there is research-based support for them. Best practices are often considered to be the same as evidence-based. These have been researched, tested, and have empirical data to support them. They are often used as benchmarks in new program development as well as possibly “blueprints’” for how to construct similar programs in other environments. All four of these are considered to be research-based practices. EMS 4320, EMS System Design 2 Literature reviews mean precisely what the name indicates; existing research UNIT is identified andGUIDE reviewed for x STUDY applicability to your proposal. Sometimes this may not be exactly the same, but similar programs or services Title may need to be considered and research applied in a modified manner. University libraries, medical libraries, some public libraries, online databases, and academic or professional association sites with publications serve as excellent resources for identifying existing research for your reviews. Program success is heavily dependent on the planning that occurs prior to implementation. It is essential to thoughtfully consider each area as you develop your proposal. Formal proposals such as those in response to a Request for proposal (RFP) may require more specific information and specific format for which to present the information. For this unit, you may use a real RFP to construct your proposal or develop an independent proposal that could be implemented in your area. Learning Activities (Non-Graded) These activities are not graded and do not need to be submitted to your instructor. However, it is recommended that you review and respond in writing in your own personal journal or notes for each. This will assist you as you begin to complete the stages of your program proposal. 1. In your textbook, read the vignette “If We Build It, They Will Come” on pages 32 and 33. Consider the questions (1-4) on page 33. You do not need to submit responses to these questions in written form, but you may want to construct written responses to consider how Tim’s approach impacted the potential success of his efforts. 2. Evaluate the Community Demography Assessment Tool (Box 2.1) on page 44 of your textbook. Consider whether the individual components will be useful for your own proposal. If so, identify those and begin documenting how you may use them. 3. Review the Market Analysis Checklist (Table 2.3) on page 58 of your textbook. Consider how you will develop your own checklist or data collection tools for analysis of the market for which your proposal will be developed. 4. Read the Case Illustration found on pages 66-71 of your textbook. Identify each of the activities used during the preplanning phase and consider whether they may be similar to those that would be useful in your own proposal. 5. Read the Case Illustrations found on pages 74-75 and pages 93-94 of your textbook. Compare outcomes or potential for success for both individuals and organizations based on how the programs were supported. Consider how you might have handled things differently. What approaches appeared to work best? Make notes about what types of potential barriers you can identify that would be relevant to your own proposal. EMS 4320, EMS System Design 3
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