Innovations in Quality Public Health Practice

APHL, in cooperation with CDC/DLS, is seeking applicants to establish an electronic birth notification mechanism and to evaluate the value of conducting surveillance on newborn screening (NBS) pre-analytic processes to improve the timeliness and quality of specimen collection, submission, and transport for NBS.

The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) is pleased to announce that funds are available for up to five APHL member laboratory newborn screening (NBS) or follow-up programs to establish a trial birth notification mechanism and to evaluate the value of conducting surveillance on NBS pre-analytic processes to improve the timeliness and quality of specimen collection, submission, and transport for NBS. Interested applicants may consider implementing in their state or building on the 2014/2015 pilot projects conducted by Indiana and Montana. This project relates to the Innovations in Quality Public Health Practice program, previously identified study questions of “What is the impact of the public health laboratory (PHL) system on the public’s health? What quality systems ensure public health laboratory quality?” and “What does the ideal public health system look like?” Funding of up to $24,500 each is available to conduct this project.

Eligibility

APHL member laboratories conducting newborn screening testing or PHL NBS follow-up programs.

Scope of Work

The funded NBS programs could utilize existing laboratory information systems, electronic health or medical record systems or collaborate with a hospital or health system that has the technology in place to conduct this project. The awardee(s) will also document and assess the extent to which this notification and surveillance system improves newborn screening processes including:

Reduction in delays of specimen submission and transport.
Improved ability to communicate with specimen submitters about specimen collection, submission and handling issues.
Reduction in specimen arrival on weekends (or coordination with an alternate testing site) if the laboratory is closed.
Improved accuracy of information about the newborn to support results interpretation.
Decreased test turnaround time.
Improved result reporting and follow-up practices (optional linkage to follow-up database is permitted).

Anticipated Schedule

June 15, 2016 - Application deadline
June 30, 2016 - Awardees notified via email from Karen Breckenridge
June 15, 2017 - Projects are completed and final reports are due to APHL

Request for Proposal Materials

The Request For Proposal (RFP) provides details on how to complete this RFP. The RFP contains a copy of the scoring criteria that will be used for evaluation of proposals in Appendix A.