National Evaluation Center for AHRQ’s Healthcare Extension Service: State-based Solutions to Healthcare Improvement (U19)

This NOFO invites applications for a National Evaluation Center (NEC) to evaluate AHRQ’s Healthcare Extension Service: State-based Solutions to Healthcare Improvement (Healthcare Extension Service). The Healthcare Extension Service will accelerate dissemination and implementation of patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) evidence into healthcare delivery through improvements in healthcare policy, payment, and practice and will reduce healthcare disparities especially among people who receive Medicaid, are uninsured, and other people who are medically underserved.

The NEC will: 1) develop data, measures, and methods to assess the range, reach, effectiveness and equity of healthcare extension service models implemented by state cooperative recipients; and 2) conduct a multi-method rapid-cycle formative and summative program evaluation of the Healthcare Extension Service, and the technical assistance and other services provided by the National Coordinating Center (NCC).

The goal of the NEC evaluation is to provide a detailed understanding of how healthcare extension services vary across Cooperative recipients, assess the reach, effectiveness, and equity of these models, identify contextual factors associated with recipient success, and document the barriers and facilitators to the delivery of healthcare extension services. The NEC recipient will work closely with AHRQ and recipients of two related NOFOs: State-based Healthcare Extension Cooperatives to Accelerate Implementation of Actionable Knowledge into Practice (U19) and the National Coordinating Center (NCC) for AHRQ's Healthcare Extension Service: State-based Solutions to Healthcare Improvement (U54).