11 Common Challenges in Healthcare Grantseeking

Common challenges in grant funding, and how to address them

U.S. hospitals are hustling to meet evolving regulatory requirements, maintain high quality care, improve the patient experience and increase cost efficiency. They are also aggressively building capacity to care for an influx of newly insured populations and bracing for dramatic shifts in current payment structures (e.g., reductions in Medicaid and Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital payments). Hospitals and health providers face the challenge of providing more and better care in an increasingly dynamic — and challenging — environment. In this volatile landscape of high-stakes change and limited resources, many healthcare providers, hospitals and networks are leveraging competitive grant funding to adopt new standards of care and invest in broader population health and community wellness initiatives.

Hanover Research's Healthcare Development Center partners have secured federal, state and private funds to support infrastructure and care delivery in traditional settings, as well as healthy lifestyle programming and place-based care delivered in broader community settings. Since the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, there have been some common challenges and frequent questions raised by Hanover partners as they seek grant funding in this context. Below, we highlight these common challenges and offer advice on how to address them in ways that improve program design and strengthen proposal competitiveness.

Challenges

Advice

1. Scheduling infrastructure investments and care delivery improvements to align with the timing of grant funding opportunities and awards.

  • Most federal grant opportunities occur on a standard schedule or forecast and can be mapped out to support a comprehensive grant seeking strategy.
  • Grant seeking should complement planned investments and fundraising programs, so that grant development planning comes alongside strategic priorities of the organization.
  • Strike a balance between income from sources that have a relatively short turnaround time for results (e.g., regional foundations) and those that require a longer term review cycle (federal grants). Diversification of funding sources for specific grant projects reduces income volatility and helps prevent abrupt funding gaps.

2. Engaging in feasible, responsible quality improvement strategies (e.g., Plan-Do-Study-Act) while satisfying funder expectations for innovation and evidence-based reforms.

  • Invest in literature research and/or clinical library of best practices, including peer reviewed journals, to monitor evolving research and government reports.
  • Monitor Institute of Medicine reports and publications from major research institutes and philanthropic foundations.
  • Analyze your current data sets to identify patterns and pinpoint challenges for your providers and patient populations.
  • Conduct a small scale pilot prior to developing a proposal for grant funding. Use preliminary outcomes to demonstrate the merit of the proposal.
  • Partner with university or medical center researchers to add credibility and ensure capacity for analysis and evaluation of the proposed project.

3. Developing compelling proposals to support replication of a proven model of care rather than new model development.

  • It is not necessary to be first to implement a model, but if you are applying for a national grant program, the proposal will generally be more competitive if it hasn't been implemented in a setting or population exactly like yours.
  • Identify what makes your population unique and how your service delivery method meets the needs of your specific patient population.
  • Appeal to regional foundations that have a vested interest in the health and/or quality of life of residents in your geographic service area (e.g., large-scale employers, community development financial institutions, economic development entities).
  • Look for foundations that seek to improve the health and well-being of a sub-set of your patient population (e.g., elderly), and frame your intervention or program based on the needs of that population.

4. Engaging grant funders to meet a relatively common need without overwhelming them with the larger issues wrapped up in healthcare "reform" (e.g., chronic disease management, ED use, behavioral health access).

  • Use data sets and information on a state, regional and organizational level. National data sets are helpful to frame the significance of the project or scope of the problem; however, be sure to match the data level with the scope of the funder.
  • Unless the funder has an expressed interest in improving care efficiency and cost savings, focus on the patient-centered outcomes of the project (e.g., improved health outcomes, reduced caregiver stress, easier care navigation.)
  • Health market factors, shifts in federal payment structures and regulatory reforms are impacting all providers, so general discussion of these changes in the healthcare landscape won't differentiate your project from others in the applicant pool.

5. Standing out among applicants when healthcare organization needs are similar across the applicant pool.

  • Review the landscape of providers in your service area to identify available healthcare services and reveal current gaps.
  • Identify your distinctive competencies, patient populations and collaborations.
  • Articulate the unique "ethos" of your organization, including results of employee and stakeholder/patient surveys and input.
  • Consult with your marketing and strategy departments. How do they differentiate your products and services from other providers in the area?

6. Proving need for a project if local health data sets don't focus on the particular problem or population being targeted.

  • Administer a survey for providers, key stakeholders or representatives of the target population.
  • Extrapolate data from similar communities and/or state and national data sets.
  • Conduct stakeholder meetings, focus groups and other qualitative methods of data collection to complement quantitative data.

7. Identifying and addressing logistical challenges of providing care and conducting outreach outside of traditional inpatient and outpatient healthcare settings.

  • Involve collaborative partners in project planning several months before the development of a grant proposal.
  • Allow all partners to contribute their particular expertise – knowledge of the population, required care protocols, support for caregivers, etc.
  • Conduct a review of similar programs that have been conducted in communities like yours. Examine differences and similarities, processes that were developed, challenges faced and outcomes that resulted. 

8. Enticing community and provider partners to engage in a broad coalition across sectors.

  • Leverage current relationships and established cooperative agreements to identify core partners.
  • Identify additional collaborators or types of collaborators that would be beneficial to the project. For each collaborator, identify their expected role in the project, how their involvement benefits the project, how the collaborator will benefit from the project and any potential challenges that may hinder their collaboration.
  • Articulate how the project can address or mitigate anticipated challenges/barriers to participation, and then engage the group of core partners to recruit additional collaborators through established networks.

9. Demonstrating sustainability for projects that are being delivered collaboratively across sectors and providers.

  • Establish one of the project partners to serve as the "backbone" organization of the collaborative effort (See Collective Impact framework).
  • Integrate services, functions, training and processes across care providers to reduce costs and solidify operational relationships.
  • Calculate the projected cost savings and/or financial sustainability of the project by engaging multiple stakeholders and experts (e.g., CFO, program evaluator) to develop a pro forma financial statement for the project.

10. Identifying grant opportunities and targeting grant programming in a way that will "move the needle" in broad areas of need identified by the Community Health Needs Assessment.

  • Evaluate the organization's current capacity to carry out activities and strategies identified in the CHNA.
  • Conduct grant prospecting for those activities that require significant additional resources, as well as those that must be carried out with the support of other service providers.
  • Consider grant opportunities that align with proposed methods, projected outcomes and/or target populations.
  • Leverage the expertise and networks of your community partners to help identify funding sources and prioritize activities within areas of identified need.

11. Deciding it if is worthwhile to pursue a grant opportunity that requires a partner entity to serve as the "lead" applicant.

  • If the proposed lead applicant has the capacity and expertise to manage the grant award, then serving as a sub-contractor on the project may be a "win-win" situation.
  • Grant funders expect that applications will include a lead applicant and several collaborators (sub-contracts), particularly for programs that require meaningful collaboration across providers.
  • As a sub-contractor, you can focus on program activities and/or care delivery without the burden of financial and programmatic reporting requirements.
  • Expanding the base of lead applicants exponentially increases the potential sources for grant funding, particularly for collaborations that reach across sectors (e.g., law enforcement, faith-based groups, education).

Philanthropic foundations and government policymakers have evolved in their use of grant funding to incentivize and expand reforms in healthcare — creating a more sophisticated, competitive and collaborative grant seeking environment. Since the launch of the PPACA, healthcare providers and grant funders have also learned from one another. Across the board, this has elevated expectations and improved the impact of grant funded initiatives.

Healthcare providers may experience common challenges in pursuing grant funding, but investing time in purposeful planning, meaningful collaboration and detailed program design can bolster grant seeking efforts and improve your organization’s competitiveness over the long term.

Teresa Wilke, MBA, is a grants consultant with Hanover Research, a global information services firm based in Washington, D.C. She has over 16 years of experience in program design, project management, and strategic communications, including 13 years of experience developing grant proposals and grant seeking strategies for universities and healthcare providers. She is a successful proposal writer, having secured over $21 million in new grants for nursing and science education, faculty development, laboratory and health facility renovations, student retention, health literacy, patient support, health information technology, chronic disease management, behavioral health and rural health projects. 

 

Copyright © 2024 Becker's Healthcare. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Linking and Reprinting Policy.

 

Featured Whitepapers

Featured Webinars