2 EPAT- Eligible Inquiry Did Not Apply

Questions for Eligible Applicants – Inquiry, Did Not Apply

I want to thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. Before we begin, we would like to ask your permission to tape record this conversation. This recording will not be shared and will only used to verify our notes for accuracy; once we have verified our notes the tape will be destroyed. Do we have your permission to tape our conversation?

IF ANSWER IS “YES”:

(Press Record) Thank you, we have begun recording.

IF ANSWER IS “NO”:

(Do not press record) Thank you for being willing to talk with us, we will not be recording this conversation.

We have the following people on the phone ____________________________ and we would like to talk to you about your organization’s knowledge and experience with the Expansion of Physician Assistant Training (EPAT) grant program.

Did you have an opportunity to read the one-pager that described the purpose of the evaluation?

IF ANSWER IS “YES”:

Do you have any questions?

IF ANSWER IS “NO”:

Since you didn’t have an opportunity to review the one-pager we would like to provide you with some background information regarding this evaluation.

As you may know, the goal of the EPAT program is to expand the primary care workforce. Through this study HRSA is evaluating the EPAT funding strategy which requires grantees to create new health profession training slots. Specifically, HRSA is interested in learning the strengths and weaknesses of this funding strategy. We want to determine the level of satisfaction of eligible organizations with various aspects of this funding opportunity. Additionally, we are interested in your perceptions of the impact of adding new trainees on organizations.

The survey should take approximately 15 minutes. After we have written up our notes, we will email them back to you so you can verify that we have accurately captured your comments.

All responses will be kept private unless we have your explicit approval to share something you say. This means that your telephone survey responses will only be shared with the evaluation team members and we will ensure that any information we include in our internal report does not identify you as the respondent. If there is a statement that you make that we would like to use in the final report of our findings, we will ask your permission to use this statement. You don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to and you may end the telephone survey at any time. Are there any questions about what I have just explained?

As you may recall, in June, 2010, HRSA made available the Physician Assistant Training program. Your organization indicated an interest in the EPAT program (insert how we know this) but did not apply. We would like to ask you a few questions to better understand the reasons for not submitting an application.

1. How did your organization find out about the Funding Opportunity Announcement for the EPAT program?

Prompts if not already covered:

Are there any sources your organization monitors on a regular basis?

Are personnel available to track and inform decision makers regarding funding opportunities?

2. Can you please discuss some of the reasons behind your organization’s decision not to apply?

Prompts if not already covered:

Timing – not enough time to develop and submit an application. What is a reasonable timeframe?

Time of the announcement release relative to academic cycle.

Lack of faculty to support additional students

Lack of clinical rotation training sites to support additional students

Need for program reaccreditation

Not worth creating new slots if they disappear in 5 years

Not enough money per resident

3. If you had decided to submit an application for the EPAT program, who would have written the proposal?

Prompts if not already covered:

Professional grant writers on staff or as consultants

Is not having a professional grant writer on staff a factor in considering whether or not to apply for a funding opportunity

4. If HRSA were to fund additional physician assistant traineeships in the future, are there any changes we could make to increase the likelihood that your organization would apply?

Prompts if not already covered:

Technical assistance – provide more TA sessions

Programmatic changes

Is there any additional feedback you would like share that might not have been addressed by our questions?

Thank you for your comments as they will help inform the continued development of our grant programs moving forward.

We appreciate your time.