Resource Search Results

Health Center Resilience in the Face of Cyber Adversity: A Case Study of the Family Health Center of Worcester’s Ransomware Incident, February 2024 (2024). Resource Type: Publication. Description: The use of ransomware -- malicious software that restricts access to computer systems with financial demands -- has escalated, targeting health centers and putting countless lives at risk. This dire reality came to the forefront during the alarming ransomware attack on the Family Health Center of Worcester, Inc. (FHCW), where the personal health information and care continuity for thousands of patients were compromised. This resource uses FHCW's experience as a case study to demonstrate the imperative of preparedness and the strength of a community-centered response in ensuring the continuity of healthcare services amidst the ever-growing tide of cyber vulnerabilities. More Details...

Advancing the use of SDOH Data to Support Value Based Care: National Training for Health Centers (2024). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Is your health center interested in learning about how collection of social needs data can support your performance in providing value based care? This one-hour webinar, presented by Washington Association for Community Health, CHAS Health, and the HITEQ Center taught about best practices in SDOH screening and how health centers have used SDOH data for patient care, population health, and value based care. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions and share the specific challenges they face regarding SDOH screening and use of data. All health center staff, particularly those involved in screening clients for social needs, connecting them to resources and using data to inform care, were welcome to attend. More Details...

How EHRs Can Be Leveraged to Streamline Social Needs Screening: Screening for Housing Status and other Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) measures Webinar (2024). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Is your health center planning, implementing, or revamping a social needs screening program? The National Health Care for the Homeless Council and the HITEQ Center hosted a free webinar on Tuesday, February 6th, 2024, from 2 - 3 pm Eastern (1 - 2 pm Central) where they taught participants how to screen for housing status and other Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) measures that can be introduced or better integrated into health center clinical workflows. Presenters shared guidance on implementing and systematizing social needs data collection in Electronic Health Records (EHRs), followed by a panel of expert health center representatives who spoke about their programs & journeys with social needs screening programs. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions, share successes, or discuss specific challenges they faced regarding social needs screening. While this webinar focused on health care for the homeless (HCH) health centers, anyone involved directly in social needs screening or interested in improving screening processes was welcome to attend. More Details...

HITEQ Highlights: What to Do About Health IT Hazards Associated with Copy and Paste in the EHR: HITEQ Highlights Webinar (2023). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Copy and paste functionality can support efficiency during clinical documentation, but may promote inaccurate documentation with risks for patient safety. This webinar discussed three key areas where health centers can consider implementing safe practice recommendations: Define copy and paste as a health IT safety issue by identifying the potential patient safety risks Review safe practice recommendations and implementation strategies to mitigate health IT-related hazards and safety issues Disseminate evidence, tools and practices for implementation More Details...

Performance Measure Data Definition Worksheet (2023). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: The Performance Measure Data Definition Worksheet can be used during the Quality Improvement (QI) process to assess the alignment of your health center’s workflows and documentation and your EHR vendor’s reporting logic processes. More Details...

HITEQ Highlights: PrEP Process Mapping Team Toolkit Demonstration: HITEQ Highlights Webinar (2023). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Is your health center currently in the process of implementing or revamping your pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) workflow? Join this HITEQ webinar to learn how to use our PrEP Process Mapping Toolkit, which is designed to support team-based learning, reflection, and action on the use of process mapping as a tool to document PrEP clinical and EHR workflows. Your health center team can follow the steps outlined in the toolkit to develop a process map of an existing or planned PrEP service workflow and to identify opportunities to streamline and improve that workflow. More Details...

HITEQ Highlights: Crossing The Chasm of Innovation - One FQHC's Journey to Operationalize its Telehealth Strategy: HITEQ Highlights Webinar (2023). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: In this HITEQ Highlights webinar, we focused on the intersection of telehealth strategy and operations. One health center\'s experience of leveraging telehealth as a tool for expanding service delivery and patient access will be a jumping off point from which to consider the benefits (and challenges) of dedicated telehealth resources within an organization. Participants learned how telehealth might benefit recruitment efforts and review relevant resources for ongoing telehealth support. More Details...

Improving Health Center Cybersecurity: Risk Assessment, Breach Defense, Mitigation and Response - Session 4: Virtual Learning Collaborative (2023). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: It\'s time to reconsider your strategy if you still treat cyber risk as an annual project or initiative. Having a thorough ongoing program in place means that even in the worst-case scenario, you\'ll be ready to demonstrate that you did what was reasonable and appropriate to protect your systems and patient data. Nothing can guarantee that a cyberattack won\'t become a breach. Health Centers are a domain with a high potential for data breaches, and the risk continues to grow as health centers use new tools and the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI). As a result, it is crucial for health center leadership to adopt breach prevention strategies across their entire organization, as opposed to relegating it to the IT department. To support health centers in their cybersecurity strategy and implementation, the HITEQ Center is offering a free learning collaborative -- Improving Health Center Cybersecurity: Risk Assessment, Breach Defense, Mitigation, and Response. This learning collaborative will involve four structured virtual learning sessions. During the series participants engaged with subject matter experts and their colleagues in peer-to-peer learning and discussion. Topics included: health center breach mitigation tactics, operationalizing cybersecurity to better mitigate risks, cybersecurity implications of generative artificial intelligence in health centers, and incident response planning from a cybersecurity perspective. More Details...

HITEQ Highlights: Enabling a Cyber-Resilient Health Center: HITEQ Highlights Webinar (2023). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: This HITEQ Highlight aimed to strengthen Health Centers\' capacity to build their cyber-resiliency. We covered risk management tools, methods for guarding against cybersecurity assaults, operationalizing cybersecurity to mitigate risks, and breach mitigation tactics. Participants focus on safeguarding data across the entire enterprise and examined approaches to implementing cybersecurity infrastructure through risk management frameworks and strategic risk assessment. More Details...

HITEQ Highlights: Health Centers as Actors (in Information Blocking)!: HITEQ Highlights Webinar (2023). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: The HITEQ Center discussed approaches to balance patient confidentiality, sensitive situations, vulnerable populations, and meeting the provisions in CURES act and information blocking. How health centers should best prepare themselves and their staff to meet the information blocking provisions and better serve the patient population was also discussed. More Details...

FAQ: How will the upcoming changes to the Information Blocking and EHR certification requirements impact health centers?: October 2022 (2023). Resource Type: Publication. Description: When will the new information blocking and EHR certification requirements be in effect? What are the upcoming changes? How will these changes impact health centers? How will the scope of Information Blocking requirements change? How should health centers expand their EHI scope? How will EHR certification requirements change? How should health centers leverage the new FHIR R4 capabilities? More Details...

Accessing Your Health Center's Digital Health Tools: HITEQ Team Tool Kit (2023). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: Digital patient engagement investments is a broad category that includes all digital health tools your health center uses to reach and support patients. These include patient portals, messaging and outreach apps, remote patient monitoring tools, and mHealth apps. Despite the hopes and promises of new technologies, implementation of digital tools in health centers can be uneven and siloed, hindering progress on adoption, engagement, and transformation. More Details...

Navigating Compliance Challenges with the Information Blocking Rule: A Collection of Case Studies: HITEQ Center and Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP, September 2023 (2023). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) 21st Century Cures Act Information Blocking Rule (Info Blocking Rule) prohibits covered actors – including health care providers, health IT developers of certified health IT, and health information exchanges/health information networks– from engaging in practices likely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage access, exchange, or use of electronic health information (EHI). The Info Blocking Rule includes eight exceptions that provide actors with certainty that, when their practice interferes with the access, exchange, or use of EHI and meets the conditions of one or more exception, such practice will not be considered information blocking.1 More Details...

Telehealth Advancement in Massachusetts 2020-2021: Celebrating successes and insights for sustainability. June 2022. (2023). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Health center utilization of telehealth advanced in leaps and bounds since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. In 2019, fewer than 500,000 visits in health centers nationwide were provided via telehealth, and in 2020, over 28 million visits were conducted virtually as reported in the Uniform Data System (UDS). More Details...

Managed Care Data Checklist: Companion Document to Video Module: Payer Data: The Managed Care Data. Prepared by Starling Advisors for the HITEQ Center in July 2022. (2023). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: How to Use This Checklist: This is a supplement to our Module 2: The Managed Care Data Set, which uses the HCP-LAN APM Framework as its basis. Review both before using this checklist. There are terms used throughout that may be new to you or may benefit from detailed explanations—please visit our Value Based Payment Glossary for basic definitions for a host of key terms. More Details...

PrEP Process Map Example: HITEQ Center, September 2023 (2023). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: This resource is an example of a Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Process Map. A process map is a picture of how a health center workflow moves from the start point to the end point. As you review the process map, make note of the design elements, such as use of colors, shapes, and icons, and the level of detail included in the map. You can download the process map in the Documents to Download section below. More Details...

Health Center Guidelines for Implementing FHIR and the Information Blocking Rule: HITEQ Center, September 2023 (2023). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: The 21st Century Cures Act and the ONC Health IT Certification Program include rules for technical configuration and use of Health Level 7® (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR) for health data exchange and accessibility. Health centers are directed to enable and publish their healthcare data locations, known as FHIR endpoints,* to and from their electronic health record (EHR). Part of the Cures Act, known as the Information Blocking Rule, mandates that patients have “easy” access to their digital medical information, costs and claims associated with their health record, and whom the data can be shared with. More Details...

Cybersecurity: Ask Me Anything: HITEQ Highlights Webinar (2023). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: This session sought to motivate and educate Health Center staff and leadership on current critical cybersecurity threats, concepts, and methods for the defense of health data. A panel of cybersecurity experts addressed questions on how to best protect the health center from both internal and external network leaks, through malware such as ransomware, and through physical means on-site. More Details...

FAQ: How can health centers comply with both 42 CFR Part 2 and the Information Blocking Rule?: July 2023 (2023). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: What are the HIPAA guidelines related to PHI and PII? What is 42 CFR Part 2? What is the Information Blocking Rule? How can my health center comply with both 42 CFR Part 2 and the Information Blocking Rule? How can my health center safeguard EHI on the patient portal following 42 CFR Part 2? How can I find out if 42 CFR Part 2 applies to my health center? Where can I find sample Information Blocking policies, procedures, and templates? More Details...

Interoperability Readiness Scorecard: HITEQ Center, July 2023 (2023). Resource Type: Template. Description: Many health centers struggle to reap the benefits of technological advancement and investments in health information technology (health IT), while others embrace them and reap rewards. Interoperability is one such example; requiring health centers assess systems, relationships, and implementation. There are keys to successful interoperability implementation for which health centers must develop processes, stand up infrastructure (within the system, internally and externally, and organization), and then take action. Process refers to structured processes, policies, and procedures within the health center. Infrastructure refers to structural capacity and ability within the health center’s technology and staffing structure. Action refers to full implementation to the point of active and ongoing use and engagement. This scorecard encourages health centers to consider their processes, infrastructure, and action in a number of key areas. Each area key to interoperability are to be self-graded on a scale of 1 through 5, where 1 is poorly or not yet developed and 5 is well developed. Health centers can also use this to guide discussions and monitor progress over time. evaluate once steps have been completed. More Details...