GCRC Administrative Review

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GCRC Administrative Review

• Garry Sanders
• Ordway Research Institute, Inc.
• Gsanders_at_ordwayresearch.org
• [phone]

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Job of Administrative Reviewer is to learn about
and report on your program, how it functions, and
what its fiscal and resource needs are.
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Your Job is to Educate Us
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A Site Visit is Not an Audit
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GCRC Administrative Review Components

• Finance and Administration
• Nursing
• Bionutrition
• Physical Facilities

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Administrative Review

• Elements of review are described in GCRC
  guidelines
• http//www.ncrr.nih.gov/clinical/crguide2004/guide
  17March2004.pdf
• Administrative Reviewers need to obtain the
  information described in the guidelines
• Approaches may vary by individual reviewer, as is
  true for scientific reviewers.

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Reading Proposal One Reviewers Approach

• Read overview section
• Organizational affiliations, flow of activity
• Skim scientific text, get a sense of research
• Review bed/day distribution per protocols
• Budget and justification, patient care
  calculations, test a few numbers
• Most recent annual report, especially notes in
  areas to be reviewed

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Finance and Administration

• Lines of responsibility
• Routine cost step down
• Offer to provide examples
• Census data and bed-day classification
• Administrative procedures
• Show examples
• Relationships with key university and hospital
  stakeholdersCharts are useful
• Familiarity and facility with business systems
• Show us your business system

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Nursing

• Nursing staff experience, stability
• Workload per nursing staff member
• Role of nursing in development of protocols
• Nurse Manager experience, leadership approach
• Nursing unit hours, coverage
• Relationship with hospital nursing
• Training and mentoring programs
• Generating nursing research protocols

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Bionutrition

• Utilization of Bionutrition services
• Bionutrition manager and staff, experience,
  stability, and training
• Coverage, hours of unit operation
• Meals planned on unit vs. hospital
• Intensity of Bionutrition protocols
• Relationship with hospital dietary unit
• Role in protocol development
• Generating Bionutrition research protocols

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Physical Facility

• Appropriateness of facility to research
  activitiesspace versus bed days
• Condition of facility, patient rooms
• Flexibility of space usage
• Renovations
• Quality and clarity of explanation
• Plan for sharing costs
• Demonstrated impact on unit productivity

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Successful Administrative Review

• All major budget items are justified based on
  protocol needs.
• Staffing increases are explained separately and
  clearly in text, restated at site reviewbased on
  protocol needs.
• Repeat the key budget needs. Always connect to
  protocol requirements.
• Historical patterns of usage, dollars, and time
  are always provided
• Institution officials understand special
  administrative issues in managing a GCRC

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Successful Administrative Review

• Massive text, many numbers, many chances for
  errors and inconsistencies. Try to minimize.
• Always talk positively about the grant and
  program.

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The administrative review takes place parallel to
the scientific review. Information learned at the
administrative review should support case made in
the scientific review.
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A Few Words on Budgets

• Present reasonable costs in a realistic manner
• Be prepared to discuss proportion of A days,
  versus B days, etc. and process for tracking
• Clearly define differences in fringe benefits
  when two employers (hospital and university) are
  involved
• Do not drown proposal in endless charts, budget
  tables. Keep key budget needs above the fray.
• Budget increases need to appear in separate
  section

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Scoring ranges

• Outstanding
• Excellent
• Very Good
• Good
• Acceptable
• NRFF

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Who should attend review?

• Best when Administrative Manager attends whole
  session
• Nurse Manager, Bionutrition Manager for their
  sessions
• Seconds in command
• Hospital liaisons if there are major budget
  increases or changes in reporting relationships
  and processes
• Hospital financial and University financial
  managers for their sessions
• Pick 2-3 people who really know the processes

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Administrative Manager

• You are the glue to a successful site review
• You need the Program Directors undivided
  attention when preparing for the site visit
• When you are successful, what you do is
  transparent to your Program Director and the team
• You never have enough time to do all the things
  that need to be done to prepare for a site visit