title: Administrative Preparedness Strategies: Expediting Procurement and Contracting Cycle Times During an Emergency.
abstract: We assessed whether administrative preparedness processes that were intended to expedite the acquisition of goods and services during a public health emergency affect estimated procurement and contracting cycle times. We obtained data from 2014-2015 applications to the Hospital Preparedness Program and Public Health Emergency Preparedness (HPP-PHEP) cooperative agreements. We compared the estimated procurement and contracting cycle times of 61 HPP-PHEP awardees that did and did not have certain administrative processes in place. Certain processes, such as statutes allowing for procuring and contracting on the open market, had an effect on reducing the estimated cycle times for obtaining goods and services. Other processes, such as cooperative purchasing agreements, also had an effect on estimated procurement time. For example, awardees with statutes that permitted them to obtain goods and services in the open market had an average procurement cycle time of 6 days; those without such statutes had a cycle time of 17 days ( P = .04). PHEP awardees should consider adopting these or similar processes in an effort to reduce cycle times.
authors.affiliation: 1 Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hurst
authors.affiliation: 1 Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharpe
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Global Health Management and Policy, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA.
authors.forename: Valerie A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Yeager
mesh_terms: D002959:Civil Defense / Q000458:organization & administration*; D032982:Contracts / Q000191:economics*; D004189:Disaster Planning; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health
keywords: emergency response; funds allocation; public health preparedness