title: A qualitative evaluation of the National Centers of Excellence in Women's Health Program.
abstract: A qualitative evaluation was conducted at 15 nationally designated Centers of Excellence in Women's Health (CoEs) that were funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Office on Women's Health at the time of data collection. The evaluation focused on organizational issues including: 1) the impact of CoE designation on the recipient institutions; 2) the greatest strengths and challenges affecting the CoEs and their core components of research, clinical care, professional education, leadership, and community outreach; and 3) whether the core components developed an interface and coordinated with one another as intended according to the DHHS national model. A total of 91 individuals were interviewed for the evaluation. The study indicates that the national designation served to legitimize and expand the scope of women's health within the recipient institutions. The CoEs enhanced collaboration among researchers and practitioners, and were able to leverage additional resources. The core components largely were successful at interfacing in accordance with the national model. Notwithstanding these successes, the CoEs remain susceptible to failure if they do not gain additional support for the concept of women's health within the recipient institutions, and will not remain durable without additional and stable funding sources.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane/Xavier Universities, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.forename: Margaret R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Seaver
authors.forename: Seunghyun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dibble
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shada
authors.forename: Bonnie
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sherman
authors.forename: Farley
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Urmston
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Milliken
authors.forename: Karen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Freund
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D014481:United States; D014483:United States Dept. of Health and Human Services; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*