I presume "sign the grant agreement" refers to a subaward agreement under
the state's prime.

I do not see that they are asking you to do something that creates a COI
unless there is something in the relationship between your institution and
the EMS providers that could give rise to a claim of providing something
that increases profit (are they non-profit?) preferentially, or of
influencing them preferentially to bring you patients in a way that
increases your profit (are you non-profit?).

Suggest you do one of two things:
1)  Have the state define who gets what, or
2)  Set up an application system for the EMS providers, and make selection
of who gets what based on some objective criteria, or on the approval of
some group of specialists (include someone from the state!).  Make certain
that your subaward specifies that it is under a federal award to supply
these items, and make sure that it specifies that title to the equipment
will vest in the EMS recipient upon delivery.  That should get you off the
hook of a perception that your organization is providing the items, and
that you might be treating some preferentially.

Oh, you may also want the subaward to specify that you are doing it because
your hospital was selected due to some role or perceived relation in the
broad organization in your state to meet certain emergency health care
needs for the public.  Are you, for example, the recognized trauma center
in the area, or the coordinator of certain activities?

Will you collect some direct administrative costs for doing this, or some
indirects?

Good hunting.

Chuck

At 02:03 PM 11/18/2003, you wrote:
>RESADM-L'ers, especially those of you at hospitals,
>
>our hospital has just received a grant agreement from the state to award
>some federal funds from the HRSA Bioterrorism Grant. The State agency is
>administering the federal dollars as the primary grantee and has crafted
>agreements to subaward the dollars to hospitals at various levels in the
>State's tier of emergency resource hospitals.
>
>We have not developed a proposal for these dollars. But we have been asked
>to sign the grant agreement, which has several problems. Beyond the question
>of whether or not the agreement terms are reasonable, a question has arisen
>whether or not one of terms directs us to do something that we cannot
>legally do.
>
>The grant agreement directs the hospital to "correct priority deficiences"
>of "pre-hospital" providers (emergency medical services providers, ambulance
>companies) by providing them with needed personal protection equipment.
>Ignore, for the sake of this question, the issue that the grantee is
>directed to correct another organization's deficiency, and consider the
>question of conflict of interest. Can the hospital legitimately use grant
>(or any other) funds to purchase equipment for EMS providers?  Our
>Foundation VP has compared this to a situtation we backed away from a few
>years ago when we wanted to raise funds to buy 12-lead EKG equipment for
>ambulance companies. Even though we proposed treating all ambulance
>companies in our region equally for the EKG program, it was squashed on the
>basis that we would be "buying influence" with the ambulance companies and
>thus violating... I don't know, an Anti-Kickback law?
>
>I'm not sure the same argument would apply to the flow-through federal funds
>from the State because the State is directing the federal dollars to other
>hospitals, geographic boundaries apply, and our competitor hospitals would
>presumably also be receving funds to assist pre-hospital providers of
>emergency services.
>
>Your thoughts?
>
>-----------------
>Molly Daniel
>Grants Specialist
>Planning Dept.
>Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center
>1000 Health Center Drive
>Mattoon, IL 61938-0372
>tel. 217-258-2195
>fax 217-258-4135
>email: xxxxxx@sblhs.org <mailto:xxxxxx@sblhs.org>
>web: www.sarahbush.org <http://www.sarahbush.org>
>
>
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Herbert B. Chermside, CRA
Director, Sponsored Programs Administration
Virginia Commonwealth University
PO BOX 980568
Richmond, VA  23298-0568
Express Delivery Only:
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