AED funding notification

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Health Resources and Services Administration
Rural Access to Emergency Devices Grant Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. — 

AGENCY: Health Resources and Services Administration, HHS.

ACTION: Notice of availability of funds.

SUMMARY: The Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA) announces that approximately $12,500,000 will be
available for fiscal year (FY) 2002 grants, technical assistance, and
program evaluation for the purchase, placement and training in the
use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and related
activities in eligible rural areas.

HRSA estimates that approximately 50 awards will be made to
community partnerships, in collaboration with State Offices of
Emergency Medical Services, for FY 2002.  These grants will be
awarded under the authority of Public Law 106-505, Title IV--
Cardiac Arrest Survival, Subtitle B--Rural Access to Emergency
Devices, 42 U.S.C. 254c note.  The Office of Rural Health Policy
will administer the Rural Access to Emergency Devices Grant
Program.

DATES: All applicants interested in applying for funding under this
program are to fax or mail a letter of intent to the Office of Rural
Health Policy by May 27, 2002, at fax number (301) 443-2803.  A
copy of this letter of intent must also be faxed or mailed to the
State Office of Emergency Medical Services by this same date. 
The letter of intent need only include the lead applicant's
organizational name, proposed number of AEDs requested and a
proposed listing of those in their community partnership.  The
deadline for receipt of applications is July 15, 2002.  Applications
will be considered on time if they are either received on or before
the deadline date in the HRSA Grants Application Center or
postmarked on or before the deadline date.  Any changes to the
aforementioned dates will be posted on the Office of Rural Health
Policy homepage at http://www.ruralhealth.hrsa.gov .

ADDRESSES: To receive an application kit, applicants may
telephone the HRSA Grants Application Center at (877) 477-2123
(877-HRSA-123) or the application forms can be downloaded via
the Web at  www.ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/funding.htm .  The
instructions for preparing the applications will be included with the
grant guidance as part of the grant application kit.  The Rural
Access to Emergency Devices Grant Program uses PHS Forms
424 and 5161 for applications.  Applicants must use the formal title
``Rural Access to Emergency Devices Grant Program'' and CFDA
number 93.259 when requesting applications.  The CFDA is a
Government-wide compendium of enumerated Federal programs,
projects, services, and activities that provide assistance.  All
applications must be mailed or delivered to the Grants
Management Officer, Office of Rural Health: HRSA Grants
Application Center, 901 Russell Avenue, Suite 450, Gaithersburg,
MD 20879: telephone (877) 477-2123.  This notice will appear in
the Federal Register at  http://www.gpo.gov/su--
docs/aces/aces140.html  and the Office of Rural Health Policy
homepage at  http://www.ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/ .

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Evan Mayfield, Office
of Rural Health Policy, HRSA, Room 9A-55, Parklawn Building,
5600 Fishers Lane,  Rockville, MD 20857, or email address
ruralaed@hrsa.gov, telephone number (301) 443-0835 and fax
number (301) 443-2803.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

(1) Program Background and Objectives

Rural Access to Emergency Devices Act, 42 U.S.C. 254c note,
authorizes grants to community partnerships to provide for the
purchase, placement, and training in the use of automated external
defibrillators (AEDs) and related activities in eligible rural areas.  An
applicant must be a multi-county, regional or Statewide consortium
of rural community organizations applying as a community
partnership.  Each community partnership must have a designated
lead applicant to apply as the grantee of record and act as a fiscal
agent for the partnership.  Funding preference \1\ will be granted to
applications that are Statewide in scope.  Additional funding priority
\2\ will be given to Statewide community partnerships that identify
their State Office of Emergency Medical Services as the lead
applicant and/or include emergency first response entities (e.g.,
EMS, law enforcement and fire departments) that are currently
operating without AEDs.  In order to qualify as a Statewide
community partnership, not every eligible county within a State
need apply but must have a State Office as the lead applicant. 
Selected locations around the State should be identified by the
lead applicant to achieve fair geographical, organizational (e.g., first
response verses public access placement) and resource allocation.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ (Preference) moves those approved applicants carrying the
preference ahead of approved applicants without the preference.

    \2\ (Priority) gives an application additional points during the
scoring process of approved applications.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The State Office of Emergency Medical Services is a logical lead
applicant to disseminate funding to individual entities within the
partnership given their statutory role in medical direction and
regulation.  Other State Offices eligible to accept these Federal
grant funds include the State Office of Rural Health or a division
within the Department of Health.  The State Office of Rural Health
is a valuable resource for consulting in public access AED
placement for those areas that lack EMS services, or are located
too far away to be of practical benefit to a community.  Community
partnerships that apply without their State Office of Emergency
Medical Services as the lead applicant must work with the State
Office of Emergency Medical Services on issues related to medical
direction and integration and placement of AEDs into existing EMS
systems.

(2) Eligible Applicants

Applicants must apply in the form of a community partnership. 
Interested eligible entities are encouraged to collaborate with a
wide range of other providers in developing a broad-based
consortium that will make up their community partnerships.  These
partnerships will include local first response entities (e.g., EMS,
law enforcement and fire departments).  In addition, local for- and
non-profit entities may be included (that have a demonstrated
concern about cardiac arrest survival rates) such as, but are not
limited to, community hospitals or clinics, nursing homes and
senior citizen day care facilities, governmental facilities, athletic
facilities, faith based organizations and schools.

All services provided by the community partnership must be
provided in an eligible rural county or Rural-Urban Commuting Area
zip code.  All State Offices, acting on behalf of the community
partnerships within their State, will be required to demonstrate how
its services will be directed to the eligible rural areas.  A complete
listing of these eligible rural areas is available on the Web.  Eligible
rural counties can be found at (
http://www.ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/ruralcoI.htm ) and Rural-Urban
Commuting Area zip codes can be found at (
http://www.ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/ruralcoZIPII.htm ).  Each is sorted
by State.

(3) Review Criteria

The HRSA Grants Application Center will screen applications for
completeness and responsiveness to the program guidance. 
Applications that are complete and responsive to the guidance will
be evaluated for technical merit by a peer review group convened
specifically for this solicitation and in accordance with HRSA
grants management policies and procedures.  As part of the initial
merit review, all applications will receive a written critique. 
Applications recommended for funding will be discussed fully by
the ad hoc peer review group and assigned a priority score for
funding.  Technical merit will be assessed using the following
criteria:

    (a) Need for AED equipment and training with documentation
using any local standard enumerating average response \3\ and
transport times (noting mileage to stabilizing and/or definitive care)
for the response area and cardiovascular mortality prevalence
rates;

--------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ If there are no pre-existing records of response times, a plan
on how these times will be recorded must be included.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

    (b) Plan for a need-based placement of AEDs and accessibility
plan to those AEDs;

    (c) Estimated AED purchasing, training, and maintenance costs
(include maintenance schedule);

    (d) How the grant award will be distributed within the community
partnership, with identified names of who will receive funding for
each entity within the partnership;

    (e) An identified and approved CPR and AED training entity;

    (f) Who will use the AEDs, and reference State laws regulating
AED usage;

    (g) Integration into local EMS systems ensuring medical
direction for documented protocols of care and legal oversight; and

    (h) A well-defined data collection and reporting mechanism via
their State Office of Emergency Medical Services or the State
Office of Rural Health should the former be unable to participate.

A further explanation of these criteria will be included in the grant
guidance.

Paperwork Reduction Act

The application for the Rural Access to Emergency Devices Grant
Program has been approved by the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act.  The OMB
clearance number is 0920-0428.

Public Health System Impact Statement

This program is subject to the Public Health System Reporting
Requirements (approved under OMB No. 0937-0195).  Under these
requirements, the community-based non-governmental applicant
must prepare and submit a Public Health System Impact
Statement (PHSIS).  The PHSIS is intended to provide information
to State and local health officials to keep them apprized of
proposed health services grant applications submitted by
community-based organizations within their jurisdictions.

Community-based non-governmental applicants are required to
submit the following information to their State Office of Emergency
Medical Services no later than the Federal application receipt due
date of July 15, 2002:

    (a) A copy of the face page of the application (SF 424)

    (b) An abstract of the project not to exceed one page, which
provides:

    (1) A description of the population to be served,

    (2) The proposed number of AEDs to be purchased and how
many people will be trained within the community partnership,

    (3) A description of the coordination planned with the appropriate
State agencies (ranging from required notification of AED
placement to such agency agreeing to being the lead applicant
and/or fiscal agent of a Statewide community partnership should
they choose to).

Executive Order 12372

    This grant program is subject to the provisions of Executive
Order 12372 concerning intergovernmental review of Federal
programs by appropriate State and local officials as implemented
by 45 CFR part 100.  Executive Order 12372 allows States the
option of setting up a system for reviewing applications from within
their States for assistance under certain Federal programs. 
Applicants (other than Federally-recognized Indian tribal
governments) should contact their State Single Point of Contact
(SPOC), a list of which will be included in the application kit, as
early as possible to alert them to the prospective applications and
receive any necessary instructions on the State process.  All
SPOC recommendations should be submitted to Larry Poole,
Office of Grants Management, Bureau of Primary Health Care,
4350 East West Highway, 11th Floor, Bethesda, Maryland 20814,
(301) 594-4260.  The due date for State process recommendations
is 60 days after the application deadline of July 15, 2002, for
competing applications for the Rural Access to Emergency
Devices Grant Program.  The granting agency does not guarantee
to ``accommodate or explain'' State process recommendations it
receives after that date.  See part 148 of the PHS Grants
Administration Manual, Intergovernmental Review of PHS Programs
under Executive Order 12372, and 45 CFR part 100 for a
description of the review process and requirements.


Dated: May 12, 2002.

Elizabeth M. Duke,
Administrator.

[FR Doc. 02-12481 Filed 5-16-02; 8:45 am]

Copyright © 2002 The Kentucky EMS Connection. All rights reserved. News stories may be copyrighted by another organization. Original material may be reproduced provided source is credited.