Project Contest Instructions

This is the proposal phase of the FY25 Caring Wisely^TM Project Contest. All UCSF, UCSF Health and BCH Oakland employees are eligible to apply!

Open Proposals is a crowdsourcing platform.  Participation is vital! 

• Set alerts to know when your Proposal has comments. 
• Encourage your colleagues to read Proposals and make comments. 
• Follow-up on comments and requests for more information. 
• Submit your Proposal as soon as possible to take advantage of feedback and optimization of your ideas for improvement.

If you would like assistance in determining the cost savings opportunities of your proposal, The Center for Healthcare Value will offer “Office Hours” to answer questions and provide guidance on cost analysis. To schedule a 25 minute Zoom meeting, please email Brian.Holt@ucsf.edu.

Finalist proposals will be asked to obtain sign-off from the Executive Sponsor.

Proposal submission questions should be sent by email to Brian Holt .

For technical issues with the Open Proposal site, contact Open.Proposal@ucsf.edu.

Criteria for Winning Projects

• Estimated return on investment (ROI) > $250,000 within FY25 project year 
• ROI may be measured as direct cost savings and/or revenue enhancement to the health system
• Intervention has potential to measurably reduce costs of care at UCSF Health without transferring costs onto others (e.g. patients, insurers)
• Reduction in variation: project reduces variability in practice for improvement of patient outcomes and reduction of cost
• Patient safety and quality: patient outcomes are maintained or improved
• Equity: proposal must address the presence of any gaps in performance related to equity, and have a plan to reduce any equity gap(s)
• Scaling: intervention has potential to scale within and beyond UCSF Health
• Sustainability: likelihood of the intervention to sustain after the Caring Wisely project year concludes (e.g. budgeting operational funds to continue work)
• Low risk of failure: interventions proven in prior studies may be preferred
• Leadership/Stakeholder Committment: clear commitment and engagement from clinical leadership at the highest levels as well as frontline staff

Award and Participation

From the proposals submitted, at least three projects will be selected.

• Awardees will receive up to $50,000 for one year.
• Awardees will receive implementation science coaching support from the Caring Wisely^TM team, opportunities to engage with UCSF Health stakeholders, and technical assistance (extracting EHR data and custom programming of APeX).
• Teams must provide their own project management support.
• This is an innovation incubator award and not a traditional grant. All costs in your budget shall be reasonable and allowable by University of California San Francisco standards. Please consult the UCSF Office of Sponsored Research for further guidance.
• Any resulting publication must directly cite the Caring Wisely^TM funding source.

Awardees must complete the below deliverables within detailed timelines:

• May - June (pre-project year preparation)
• Attend Caring Wisely^TM Kickoff Meeting; target late May/early June 
• Meet individually with the Caring Wisely^TM team to prepare project planning documents (A3, project trackers) as well as draft process and outcomes metrics
• Complete Lean A3 Thinking training and follow-up coaching; coordination between Caring Wisely^TM awardees and Continuous Improvement Department will be provided; target June 
• Collect baseline data
• July - June (project implementation year)
• Participate in Caring Wisely^TM work-in-progress (WIP) meetings project team meetings. 
• Day/times will be selected in May.  Participation expected to be > 80% over the year.
• July – August: Weekly meetings (schedule TBD in May/June)
• September– June: two (2) meetings per month

• Program milestones project teams will be accountable for:
• Jun - Sep - Intervention Design
• Oct - Dec - Implementation/PDSA (i.e. first test of change expected to occur before or by December)
• Jan - Mar - Measure/Hardwire and PDSA (i.e. data will be gathered and used to PDSA and/or hardwire intervention)
• Apr - Jun - Optimization (i.e. data will be gathered to continually improve and hardwire intervention)
• Post-Project Year
• Report Outs to UCSF Health Executive Leadership

Eligibility

All UCSF, UCSF Health, and BCHO Oakland employees are eligible.

Proposal Template

For your proposal to be considered, it must contain each of the sections in bold below (use them as headings in your proposal) and limited to four single-spaced pages. You may upload supporting files as well. 

• PROPOSAL TITLE:
• PROJECT LEAD(S):
• EXECUTIVE SPONSOR(S): An executive sponsor is a senior leader(s) in your clinical or operational area who is responsible for the overall success of the project and can assist with the removal of systems barriers. Project teams must remain in regular contact with their executive sponsor(s) throughout the project year.
• ABSTRACT - One paragraph summary of your proposed initiative – Limit 1500 characters (with spaces)
• TEAM - Core implementation team members and titles
• PROBLEM - Provide background of the current state and describe the problem or gap in performance, including the presence of any equity gaps. What are the financial and operational metrics that provide evidence of this problem/performance gap? Why address this problem now? 
• TARGET -  What is the SMARTIE (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timebound, inclusive, equitable) goal?  What are the expected benefits, both qualitative and quantitative?
• GAPS - Why does the problem exist?  Describe system issues; technological gaps; educational gaps
• INTERVENTION - Describe your proposed intervention and rationale for approach, and include a plan to measure and close any equity gaps. Describe your practice setting and target population (e.g. department, unit, clinic, patient characteristics, diagnosis group, procedural group, provider characteristics, staff characteristics, etc.). Describe potential barriers to implementation. What are the possible adverse outcomes that may occur that may affect quality of care and patient safety as a result of your proposed intervention?
• PROPOSED EHR MODIFICATIONS Note: EHR modifications are NOT required for a winning proposal
• What are the clinical problems you are hoping to solve with APeX?
• What APeX tools (patient lists, reports) or workflows (orders, documentation, alerts) are you using now to achieve this goal? How would you want these modified? 
• What new APeX tools/workflows do you think you need to achieve the goals of your project?
• RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) - Estimated direct cost savings and/or revenue enhancement to the health system from the proposed project
• SUSTAINABILITY - If successful, how will this intervention be sustained beyond the funding year?  Who are the key UCSF leaders/process owners that can plan for and budget operational resources to keep the intervention going after the project year?
• BUDGET - Line-item budget up to $50,000 - Briefly identify key areas of the project that will require funding, e.g., salaries, software, printing, etc

Submission Instructions

Submit your proposal by clicking the orange ‘ADD PROPOSAL’ button at the top right of the screen on the "Caring Wisely FY25 Project Contest" landing page on OpenProposals.

Copy the template provided above and paste your proposal into the text box.  Click ‘SAVE’ button to submit.

Timeline