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.

Keywords: emergency response; funds allocation; public health preparedness.

Figure.

Average estimated procurement and contracting cycle times during an emergency for awardees of the Hospital Preparedness Program and Public Health Emergency Preparedness cooperative agreement (n = 61), by the number of administrative processes in place, United States, 2014-2015. The 2 processes examined were (1) use of the open market to obtain goods and services for immediate delivery and (2) use of cooperative purchasing agreements that list all available contracts and the commodities under them.