Quick Finds: HIT/Data

Considerations for Sustaining a Culture of Cybersecurity: Part I: Understanding the Essentials (2022). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: With the rise in cyberattacks of government agencies and large-scale companies, organizations large and small are questioning if they are doing all they should to protect their data. More Details...

Telehealth and Digital Tools Equity Assessment: Developed in February 2022 (2022). Resource Type: Other. Description: This brief assessment, which can be downloaded in the Documents to Download section below, contains questions that health centers can ask potential vendors to ensure their tools support equitable access and address the needs of the health center\'s population. More Details...

Affordable Connectivity Program Consumer Outreach Toolkit (2022). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: The Affordable Connectivity Program was created by the FCC to help households struggling to pay for internet service. As part of that effort, the FCC is mobilizing people and organizations to help raise awareness about the ACP. The materials below are available for public use, and you can download and customize them to meet your needs. More Details...

Strategies for Collecting Social Needs Data (2022). Resource Type: Other. Description: Implementing a social need screening effectively is an iterative process. Many health centers find that their approach evolves as new concerns or considerations arise. The examples in this resource, gleaned from interviews with health centers, illustrate that unique context and needs drive what works. More Details...

Clinical Quality Measures for Eligible Professionals: 2022 Update (2022). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This spreadsheet developed by the HITEQ Center provides a crosswalk of Clinical Quality Measures and their electronic specifications as defined in the 2022 update for Eligible Professionals (Clinicians). More Details...

Quality Improvement Strategies in a Team-Based Care Environment (2022). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: This webinar provides the knowledge and skills for building a quality improvement (QI) infrastructure within team-based care. QI is an organizational strategy that will establish a culture of continuous improvement across departments and improve quality in all domains of performance. Many positions in primary care now require QI training as part of employees\' professional development. More Details...

Coding for Pesticide-Related Illness: A Toolkit for Coding for Pesticide-Related Illness: Toxic Effects of Pesticide, Signs and Symptoms of Effects of Pesticides (Acute Effects) (2022). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: This guide details the ICD-10-CM codes for the toxic effects and the signs and symptoms for pesticide-related illnesses. This information is pulled from the ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting (and other resources). Please refer to the guidelines for additional information. This guide is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical, healthcare or billing advice. Healthcare providers and billing/coding professionals are advised to seek confirmatory information. This is not an exhaustive list nor does it imply etiology. www.pesticideresources.org/med More Details...

Electronic Case Reporting Leveraging Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources Toolkit: Electronic Health Records and Case Reporting Privacy and Security (2022). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: In order to aid PCAs and HCCNs in developing a workplan for implementing a FHIR API integration for their network partners this guide includes resource planning, consideration of EHR vendor and individual EHR instance needs, and understanding case reporting requirements. More Details...

Electronic Case Reporting Leveraging Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources Toolkit: Electronic Health Records and Case Reporting Privacy and Security (2022). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: In order to aid PCAs and HCCNs in developing a workplan for implementing a FHIR API integration for their network partners this guide includes resource planning, consideration of EHR vendor and individual EHR instance needs, and understanding case reporting requirements. More Details...

Financial and Operational Benchmarking Trends and Techniques (2022). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Through an evaluation of multi-year trends and median results, this session will provide a framework for identifying financial strengths and challenges for health center performance improvement as referenced in Capital Link’s just released Federally Qualified Health Centers Financial and Operational Performance Analysis and Rural FQHC Financial and Operational Performance Analysis. More Details...

Sample Information Blocking policies, procedures, and templates (2022). Resource Type: Other. Description: Tools for Health Centers to Comply with Rules Prohibiting Information Blocking More Details...

Health Information Technology (HIT) Resource Guide for Health Center Dental Programs (2022). Resource Type: Publication. Description: NNOHA is pleased to introduce its Health Information Technology Resource Guide for Community Health Center Dental Programs. The Guide provides technical assistance on several IT topics including a process for selecting management software and an electronic dental record for your community health center. Other topics include information on teledentistry, electronic prescribing, information security, integrating the dental system with the medical system, and much more. Links are available within the Guide to a new HIT Workbook which provides templates for creating forms CHCs can use in their information system search process. More Details...

Rural Federally Qualified Health Centers Financial and Operational Performance Analysis 2017-2020 (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This report, prepared by Capital Link with support from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), provides an aggregate financial and operational profile of rural Federally Qualified Health Centers. More Details...

Federally Qualified Health Centers Financial and Operational Performance Analysis 2017-2020 (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This report, prepared with support from the Health Resources and Services Administration, provides an aggregate financial and operational profile of Federally Qualified Health Centers nationally from 2017 to 2020. More Details...

Strategic Investments in Telehealth and Digital Tools for Health Centers: Maintaining Your Competitive Advantage Beyond the Pandemic (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This short guide describes FQHC telehealth utilization and barriers to adoption pre and during COVID19 pandemic. The document outlines reasons for maintaining or increasing adoption relative to improving health equity through technology access and move to value based care. A checklist is provided to guide technology investment and decision making. More Details...

Assessing Telehealth Maturity in Health Centers: A report out on the progress of Massachusetts health centers in advancing telehealth during a pandemic (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: This webinar gave participants the opportunity to learn about the successes and ongoing work to advance telehealth in Massachusetts and critical areas for continued focus and resources to enable equitable access to telehealth. More Details...

Planning a Capital Project to Accommodate Integrated Care: A First Steps Overview - Nov. 4, 2021 (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Is your health center considering building new facilities to incorporate team-based, integrated care? This session will cover essential steps to prepare your project for success, including incorporating facilities goals in your strategic plan, understanding your patient base and community trends and analyzing your current operations to determine the space you need. We’ll also describe resources available to help you plan. More Details...

Identifying Outcomes for Medical Respite/ Recuperative Care Programs (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This document is intended to help programs identify specific outcomes and variables that they can feasibly track within their program. More Details...

Building the Evidence Base for Medical Respite Care: A Participatory and Inclusive Research Agenda (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: The National Institute for Medical Respite Care (NIMRC), a special initiative of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, planned and implemented a year-long stakeholder engagement project, Identifying Strategies to Engage Medical Respite Care Programs and People Experiencing Homelessness, to explore opportunities for advancing patient-centered outcomes research within the field of MRC. This research agenda is based on the cumulative activities leading to and including a two-day project summit involving various stakeholders (many of whom had lived experience of homelessness) from more than 22 MRC programs and communities nationwide. More Details...

Privacy Principles for Protecting Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence, Exploitation and Human Trafficking in Healthcare Settings (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Included here are guiding principles that should be applied by healthcare providers, administrators, policy makers and developers when designing, building, utilizing or regulating health information systems that will hold or exchange sensitive health information. More Details...

Collecting Gender Identity Data in EHRs (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: In this talk from the 2021 Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health conference, Chris Grasso and Juwan Campbell discuss the importance of and how to collect gender identity data in EHRs. More Details...

SDOH Data Dashboards Module 4: SDOH Dashboard Design - Advanced: HITEQ SDOH Data Dashboards Series (2021). Resource Type: E-Learning. Description: Module four provides advanced-level information on using social determinants of health data and dashboards for facilitating and tracking social needs referrals, conducting predictive analysis with social determinants of health and health outcomes data, and using social determinants of health data to improve reimbursement for addressing social needs. More Details...

SDOH Data Dashboards Module 3: SDOH Dashboard Design - Intermediate: HITEQ SDOH Data Dashboards Series (2021). Resource Type: E-Learning. Description: Module three provides intermediate-level information on collecting social determinants of health data and using data visualization for effective dashboards with stratification of data. More Details...

SDOH Data Dashboards Module 2: SDOH Dashboard Design - Beginner: HITEQ SDOH Data Dashboards Series (2021). Resource Type: E-Learning. Description: Module two provides beginner-level information on collecting social determinants of health data and basic analyses of the data. View Module 1, Module 3, and Module 4 in the Resource Links section below. More Details...

SDOH Data Dashboards Module 1: Introduction to SDOH Dashboard Design (2021). Resource Type: E-Learning. Description: The Social Determinants of Health Data Dashboards training is a four-module series, this is the first of the four modules. This module provides an introduction to the role of screening and collecting data on social determinants of health, identifying social determinants of health measures and using data effectively, and assessing organizational data dashboard capability. More Details...

Community Health Centers Telehealth Promising Practices: Case Studies from the COVID-19 Pandemic (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This collection of case studies highlights ten community health centers' promising practices and lessons learned in adoption or expansion of telehealth delivery in response to the covid-19 pandemic. More Details...

Protocol for HRSA-supported Community Health Centers to Engage Patients through Universal Education Approaches on Exploitation (E), Human Trafficking (HT), Domestic Violence (DV) and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)/Protocolo para los Centros de Salud Comunitarios para Atender a Pacientes a través de enfoques de Educación Universal sobre la Explotación (E), el Tráfico Humano (TH), la Violencia Doméstica (VD) y la Violencia de Pareja Íntima (VPI) (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: The protocol purpose is to prevent exploitation, human trafficking, domestic violence, and intimate partner violence by helping patients have healthy relationships and promote their health as workers. The protocol will enable the health center to provide trauma-informed, survivor-centered care; intervention with clinical and case management services; and formalized ways to connect patients with community-based services that provide resources for domestic violence, employment assistance, housing, food, civil legal aid, and other basic needs. More Details...

Lessons Learned in Data Sharing & Care Coordination (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This publication summarizes the lessons learned from conversations with Health Care for the Homeless health center consumers and providers as health centers work to create coordinated care systems through data. More Details...

HITEQ Highlight Webinar: Level Up: Leveraging Your EHR to End the HIV Epidemic (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: What if we told you your electronic health record (EHR) was one of the keys to ending the HIV epidemic (EHE)? Your EHR is a powerful tool that can support increases in HIV testing, access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for people at risk for HIV, and so much more! View our HITEQ Highlights webinar on June 8th to learn more about leveraging your EHR through the use of digital tools and innovative strategies! More Details...

HITEQ Electronic Patient Engagement Tool Selection Rubric (2021). Resource Type: Other. Description: This Excel-based scoring rubric is intended to be used by health centers to assess electronic patient engagement tools (like automated outreach SMS platforms) to determine which tool is most likely to meet the health center\'s needs. The tool assists health centers in assessing the following areas: Patient communication features Operations features Health IT Integration Attribution and value based care features Patient generated data/ remote patient monitoring features Administration It provides guidance for weighting and scoring and provides calculated final scores for up to 5 tools. Download the Excel-based tool below. More Details...

Performance Benchmarking Toolkit for Rural Health Centers: Tracking Data to Improve Financial Performance (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This toolkit provides guidance in applying data analysis tools to help rural health centers more effectively track performance, understand key drivers, and incorporate operational insights for financial sustainability. This resource was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration. (Released 2021) More Details...

UDS Quick Guide for Federally Funded Health Centers: How to use UDS data to expand your understanding of SDOH (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This UDS Guide will inform health center staff on how UDS offers rich and detailed insight to inform operations at health centers. More Details...

Bridging the Digital Divide: Tactics to Address Patient Barriers to Virtual Care (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Lack of Internet and broadband access prevents some patients from using telehealth and other technology that can support their own health care and getting accurate health care information. In one 2020 study, 42 million Americans lacked adequate access to broadband (high speed internet). As of 2019, about one in five people did not have smartphones, and among low income people nearly one third do not have a smartphone. Rates of computer ownership are not much better. Those patients who do have access to the technology may or may not have the capacity and willingness to use it, depending on past experiences. Some patients aren\'t comfortable with technology, while others don\'t trust it or believe that virtual care is sub-par, despite growing evidence of its benefits. This culminates in a clear digital divide that can hinder the ability for patients to fully engage in their care or take advantage of things like remote patient monitoring, telehealth, mHealth, or patient portal. More Details...

Building Clinical Informatics Session 4: Evaluating Usability and Human-Centered Design for Happy Users and Better Performance (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Evaluating usability and implementing human-centered design principles can improve reimbursement, care team satisfaction, data quality, and reduce staff time spent on clinical tasks. This webinar describes how engaging vendor partners in user-centered improvements can improve the vendor-customer relationship and the care team experience. More Details...

Strategic Cybersecurity Investments: Leveraging American Rescue Plan Funding to Enhance Infrastructure and Services: HITEQ Highlights webinar (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Healthcare continues to be the sector most targeted globally by ransomware and related malware attacks and leads in the average total cost of data breach across industries. The FY 2021 American Rescue Plan Funding provides an excellent opportunity for Health Centers to make strategic investments in cybersecurity infrastructure and services. This HITEQ Highlight, presented by Adam Kehler of Online Business Systems provides an overview of assets that can increase Health Center cybersecurity. Topics covered include cybersecurity infrastructure and services that can increase defense-in-depth for health IT, including EHRs, telehealth tools and services, mobile medical devices, patient portals, and related health information software applications. More Details...

Strategies for Supporting Health Center Patients Experiencing Food Insecurity (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Food insecurity has doubled since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, and has tripled among families with children. Not having enough access to food is a key contributor to negative health outcomes for adults and children alike, and it is important now more than ever for health centers to identify and support patients who are experiencing food insecurity. This resource is designed to support health center efforts to identify and assist patients who are experiencing food insecurity. It outlines key considerations around integrating social determinants of health (SDoH)-related screening and intervention into the electronic health record (EHR) workflow, highlights standardized screening tools and data elements to monitor the prevalence of food insecurity among patients, and describes several strategies to meet food-related needs. The downloadable guide, available in the Documents to Download section below, is split into the following sections, each of which draws on foundational work from health centers and national partners: Integrate your screening strategy into your EHR workflow-- several case studies are included Select a standardized tool to identify food insecurity-- several tools with their related EHR integration and workflow considerations are outlined Monitoring food insecurity among patients-- tips about coding and dashboarding are provided Connecting patients to available resources More Details...

Strategies for Capturing Outside HIV Test Results for Your Health Center (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Providers working with patients coming to or from health centers may need important health information, such as HIV test results, to help physicians provide the best care possible to the patient. What strategies exist to help health centers give and receive data so that providers can render seamless care without interruption? We’re glad you asked. Data sharing agreements, tools, and standard operating procedures (SOP) are a few strategies that health centers can use to ensure a patient’s electronic health record (EHR) is as detailed and up-to-date as possible. More Details...

HITEQ Highlights: Introducing the Health App Analyzer: HITEQ Highlights Webinar (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: While there are thousands of consumer health applications (health apps), which run on smartphones, watches, tablets, and other mobile devices, there is currently no central government agency that provides certification or guidance on consumer-based health apps. View this HITEQ Highlights webinar to learn more about a new tool, the Health App Analyzer, designed to assist health care providers, patients, and consumers in determining whether a given consumer health app provides appropriate health information, guidance, and related services. The Health App Analyzer is a step-by-step decision tree that determines whether a particular health app is the best fit for a specific patient or a health center\'s patient population. More Details...

Building Clinical Informatics Learning Community Session 3: Improving Data Exchange: COVID-19 as a Test Case for FQHC Interoperability (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: The most value-added approaches to interoperability should rely on enduring machine-to-machine connections with regular testing that bring data to the point of care. This webinar discusses how filling health data gaps with external data sources can change the effectiveness of care activities and close care gaps and work with FQHC partners to demonstrate the value these connections bring. More Details...

Measuring Telehealth Success: You Can't Achieve it if You Can't Measure It: HITEQ Highlights Webinar (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: More than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, it is now obvious that telehealth — in the form of a hybrid care delivery model that blends virtual and in-person care — is not a fad, but a healthcare delivery option that is here to stay. Healthcare leaders are seeking to optimize their organization\'s telehealth services for high performance and long-term sustainability. The problem is that most leaders neither know how well (or how bad) their telehealth services are performing, nor what true success can or should look like. Telehealth, when designed and implemented correctly, will engage patients to achieve positive outcomes, delight physicians, and contribute to organizational strategic objectives, including sustainable financial success. In this presentation, Christian Milaster of Ingenium Digital Health Advisors leads viewers through a series of pragmatic concepts on how to set an organization’s telehealth success targets, what and how to measure telehealth performance, the Physician Bill of Telehealth Rights, and how to leverage telehealth to achieve strategic success. This presentation is the second session of a two-part series. The first session focused on a telehealth maturity model and is available here. More Details...

Health Center Information Blocking Avenger: A HITEQ Center Training Badge (2021). Resource Type: E-Learning. Description: In March 2019, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) issued a Proposed Rule, 21st Century Cures Act: Interoperability, Information Blocking, and the ONC Health IT Certification Program. ONC released a final rule in March 2020, published in the Federal Register on May 1, 2020. The Final Rule prohibits actors from blocking the exchange of electronic health information and seeks to increase the ease and choices available for patients to access their data.If Information Blocking is all new to you, review these resources first to set yourself up for success. More Details...

Capital Investment Trends and Needs of Federally Qualified Health Centers, 2021 (2021). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Supported by a Cooperative Agreement with the Health Resources and Services Administration, this report is based on the findings of our recent assessment of health centers across the US to determine the current and emerging capital plans and needs during this unprecedented time. (Released 2021) More Details...

Who Wants To Be A Vaccinator: Volunteers, Students, and Other Professionals (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: To meet the demand for knowledge on COVID-19 vaccines, CHCI and its Weitzman Institute is moving back to weekly COVID-19 national webinar sessions! More Details...

Building Clinical Informatics Learning Community Session 2: Data Validation: Building a Playbook for Data Quality (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Extracting data from EHRs and health IT systems can be challenging; unfortunately, without a coordinated Data Quality Plan to clean and validate data, a large proportion of electronic health data do not reach a minimum level of quality for most use cases. A clear plan for data extraction, mapping, analytics, and validation can help immensely to create better data quality, particularly if applied consistently across use cases and iteratively over multiple data extracts. Here we present a few strategies and tools for evaluating data quality and hear from a partner who routinely engages in data quality practices with FQHCs. More Details...

Staff Roles, Responsibilities, and Training Throughout the Vaccination Cycle (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: To meet the demand for knowledge on COVID-19 vaccines, CHCI and its Weitzman Institute is moving back to weekly COVID-19 national webinar sessions! More Details...

The Stairway to Telehealth Sustainability: The Telehealth Maturity Model: HITEQ Highlights Webinar (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth adoption increased significantly, supporting ongoing access to care and was critical to support healthcare operations continuity which resulted in the adoption of various modes of telehealth tools. The initial focus was applying telehealth capabilities to ordinary care to increase access to care and keep patients, providers and staff safe. What healthcare organizations are now looking for is a roadmap to make telehealth more sustainable, to integrate it into clinical operations and to leverage it more strategically. In this presentation, Christian Milaster of Ingenium Digital Health Advisors shares the 7-step Telehealth Maturity Model that guides organizations toward sustainable success with telehealth. This presentation is the first session of a two-part series. HITEQ will host a second webinar session in April -- Measuring Telehealth Success: The Why, The What, The How. More Details...

A Multi-Pronged Approach to On-Site, Drive-Through, and Mobile Outreach Vaccine Clinics (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: To meet the demand for knowledge on COVID-19 vaccines, CHCI and its Weitzman Institute is moving back to weekly COVID-19 national webinar sessions! More Details...

Electronic Patient Engagement Vendor Discussion Event: COVID-19 Vaccine Communication: HITEQ and HealthTalk vendor discussion event (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: View a brief presentation by HITEQ and HealthTalk followed by facilitated questions and discussion on their electronic patient engagement platform and the features within the platform that can assist federally qualified health centers with COVID vaccine communication and dissemination. Note that these sessions are not an endorsement of any specific vendor. These are an opportunity for health centers to hear about 3rd party vendors and get questions answered. More Details...

Essential Policies, Procedures, and Roles in Managing, Protecting, and Administering Your Vaccine Supply (2021). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: To meet the demand for knowledge on COVID-19 vaccines, CHCI and its Weitzman Institute is moving back to weekly COVID-19 national webinar sessions! More Details...

Financial Impact of COVID-19 on California Federally Qualified Health Centers - Infographic (2021). Resource Type: Other. Description: Created with support from the California Health Care Foundation, this infographic highlights California FQHCs’ net projected losses from April through December 2020, after taking into account critical federal support made available through December 2020. More Details...