Resource Search Results

Ensuring People with Chronic Conditions Maintain Access to Care (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This story series follows the Whitman Walker Health Center medical-legal partnership team as they helped prevent platinum insurance plans that were widely used by patients with chronic conditions from being eliminated in the D.C. Marketplace More Details...

Understanding and Addressing Hypertension and Heart Health in Your Community: A Quick Guide For Community Health Workers (2018). Resource Type: Toolkit. Description: Understanding and Addressing Hypertension and Heart Health in Your Community: A Quick Guide For Community Health Workers provides information surrounding hypertension and heart health. Inside you will find tools for Community Health Workers to use to guide patients with hypertension towards a healthier future. The guide also comes with a blood pressure tracker, which can be shared with patients as they track their progress towards their blood pressure goals. More Details...

Suicide and Homelessness: Data Trends in Suicide and Mental Health Among Homeless Populations (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This fact sheet details common risk factors for suicidal behaviors, mental health and clinical utilization trends of HCH grantees reported in the 2016 Uniform Data System dataset, and circumstantial data reported in the National Violent Death Reporting System. More Details...

Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations: A Case Study with Hennepin Health (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: State Medicaid agencies are increasingly utilizing ACOs as an approach to redesign their health care delivery systems, and participating care providers in these states will experience significant changes in reimbursements and service organization/delivery. Through the lens of Hennepin Health, this publication examines key challenges, next steps, and lessons learned at one HCH program participating in an ACO. More Details...

Know Your A1C Tool / Conozca Su A1C (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: One of the most commonly reported positive health outcomes in Community Health Worker-led diabetes interventions is the improvement/stabilization of A1C levels reported in patients. The hemoglobin A1C test is a marker widely used to diagnose pre-diabetes and diabetes and to monitor diabetes control in patients. More Details...

Community Health Workers & Hypertension and Heart Health Interventions (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Community Health Workers & Hypertension and Heart Health Interventions: A Resource for Program Managers and Administrators is a resource for Community Health Worker program managers and administrators. It explains how Community Health Worker-led intervention programs can positively impact patients who have hypertension. About 75 million American adults (1 in every 3) have high blood pressure. Although high blood pressure can be easily detected and can be controlled with lifestyle changes and medication, almost a third of individuals with hypertension don’t know they have it, and only about half have it under control. Due to their close understanding of and trust from the communities they serve, CHWs can be particularly strong champions for patients with hypertension and/or at risk of heart disease. More Details...

What's new in STI epidemiology, prevention, and treatment for Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM)? (2018). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Rates of syphilis and gonorrhea have been increasing in the United States, and most cases occur in men who have sex with men (MSM). In this webinar, Dr. Kevin Ard will review recent trends in STIs and examine causes for these trends. He will also discuss the controversial impact of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) on STI incidence among MSM. Dr. Ard will outline steps clinicians and health centers can take to address STIs in 2018. More Details...

Keeping Children Safe From Lead Poisoning (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This story series follows the medical-legal partnership at Erie Family Health Centers, which built a multi-state coalition to secure children’s health by updating federal regulations related to lead levels in federal housing. More Details...

Eliminating Hurdles to Life Saving Medication (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This story series follows the Whitman-Walker Health medical-legal partnership, which worked with insurance companies to remove requirements forcing Post-Exposure Prophylaxis medications to be filled by mail More Details...

Creating and Managing Strong Passwords at Your Health Center: Guidance in relation to updated NIST security requirements and HIPAA (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Is it acceptable/recommended for health centers to adopt the new password policy guidelines under NIST Special Publication 800-63B and will that still uphold the HIPAA security rule? This question had been posed to the HITEQ Center asking whether we had any guidance or recommendations on implementing the new NIST Guidelines regarding password security.  New Digital Identity Guidelines under NIST Special Publication 800-63-B presents new guidelines regarding password security that are much more user-friendly and consequently more likely to be observed by health center staff since constantly changing, complex password on multiple systems can be a source of frustration for the end user.  Question: Is it acceptable/recommended for health centers to adopt the new password policy guidelines under NIST Special Publication 800-63B and will that still uphold the HIPAA security rule? This question had been posed to the HITEQ Center asking whether we had any guidance or recommendations on implementing the new NIST Guidelines regarding password security.  New Digital Identity Guidelines under NIST Special Publication 800-63-B presents new guidelines regarding password security that are much more user-friendly and consequently more likely to be observed by health center staff since constantly changing, complex password on multiple systems can be a source of frustration for the end user.  After consulting with HITEQ cybersecurity experts and consultants who have helped publish cybersecurity guidelines, the recommendations outlined below were communicated. Answer: The short answer is Yes. HIPAA is not prescriptive and takes the general stance that authentication mechanisms should be “reasonable and appropriate” for the risk they present. Being able to say that you are implementing NIST Standards is a good way to show that you are implementing “reasonable and appropriate” controls. Some standards are relaxed in regards to password change and complexity, those items shouldn’t be taken in isolation. The additional controls in the 800-63 recommendations should also be put in place and can include: Having users check passwords against password lists from breaches e.g., https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords  Increasing the length requirements Getting rid of password reminder questions Increasing usability Further Guidance from NCCIC/US-CERT: NCCIC/US-CERT reminds users of the importance of creating and managing strong passwords. Passwords are often the only barrier between you and your personal information. There are several programs attackers can use to help guess or "crack" passwords. However, choosing strong passwords and keeping them confidential can make it more difficult for others to access your information. NCCIC/US-CERT recommends users take the following actions: Use multi-factor authentication when available. Use different passwords on different systems and accounts. Don't use passwords that are based on personal information that can be easily accessed or guessed. Use the longest password or passphrase permissible by each password system. Don't use words that can be found in any dictionary of any language. Refer to Tips on Choosing and Protecting Passwords and Supplementing Passwords for best practices and additional information. More Details...

Helping Kids Get At-Home Care (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: What would you do if your one-year old child depended on a ventilator to breathe, and the home nursing care needed to monitor it wasn’t available? Would you keep your child in the hospital indefinitely? Would you quit your job to be home with your child, and stay up all night to make sure they didn’t stop breathing? Would you put them in a long-term nursing facility 80 miles away where they’d have the care they needed, but where you wouldn’t see them for days at a time? In 2015, for several parents in Washington State, the heartbreaking answer to all these questions was yes. More Details...

Increasing Access To Care thorugh Tele-Dentistry: Promising Practice (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Teledentistry is an emerging trend among health centers to expand access to dental care. This promising practice will discuss the story of Ravenswood Family Health Center in California and their use of the virtual dental home model. More Details...

Facing the Challenges of Oral Health for Seniors (2018). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: This webinar explores the characteristics of the senior population that directly affect elder oral health care delivery, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. The emphasis is on the important connections between oral health and the total health of elder individuals. More Details...

Promising Practices for Health Centers Serving Youth Experiencing Homelessness: Profiles in Health and Housing Partnerships Serving Young Adults (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This case study profiles Health Centers engaging and serving youth facing the challenges of homelessness on the street and in community based housing More Details...

Housing Solutions for People Experiencing Homelessness: Healing Hands (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This issue of Healing Hands is dedicated to key housing approaches and models that may be utilized in housing programs, with a special focus on some of the challenges involved in housing families and a spotlight on lessons learned from care providers about how to create supportive structures and communities for people transitioning into housing. More Details...

Report: The Financial Impact of Workforce (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This report covers the costs associated with a provider vacancy at a health center beyond the dollar value and provides recommendations for steps to bolster a plan for recruitment and retention to avoid these costs in the future. More Details...

Behavioral Health Integration Compendium: Curated Guidance and Resources from Experienced Organizations, developed with Chiron Strategy Group (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Many health centers collaborate with external behavioral health providers or provide co-located or integrated behavioral health services within their health center. Some of the most significant challenges are determining which data to share, how to store it within the Electronic Health Record, and how to use it within primary care. This compendium of literature and resources offers some guidance related to behavioral health data integration, complete with key health center considerations for each. Many health centers collaborate with external behavioral health providers or provide co-located or integrated behavioral health services within their health center. Some of the most significant challenges are determining which data to share, how to store it within the Electronic Health Record, and how to use it within primary care. This compendium of literature and resources offers some guidance related to behavioral health data integration, complete with key health center considerations for each. Click on each heading below to access the original pieces being profiled. Integrating Behavioral and Primary Care — Technology and Collaboration This article focuses on the challenges of integrating data between primary care and behavioral health. It discusses a number of concerns, and approaches that have been taken, including the benefits of developing structured data within the EHR. Health Center Takeaway: Patient consent for sharing sensitive health information can be integrated into the EHR, which will allow for greater information sharing while complying with Federal privacy expectations. Can technology shape the future of behavioral health? This article includes a number of different ways that technology plays a part in integrated behavioral health, highlighting: Adoption of telehealth as a means to augment care; Inclusion of behavioral health data in Health Information Exchanges, citing the experience of Arizona; and An example of an application being developed with NIH support that hopes to provide collaborative care tools to patients. Health Center Takeaway: Health centers are encouraged to investigate whether insurers will reimburse for telehealth and what is required to do so, to see if developing a telehealth program might augment the availability of behavioral health services for your patients. HITEQ has a number of resources related to telehealth. Integrated Behavioral Health Partners Three Case Studies on Behavioral Health Data Sharing Three California case studies where organizations shared behavioral health data.  The website includes details regarding mental health data, substance use data, consent, methods of sharing, and challenges. Health Center Takeaway: Use these examples of different approaches to consent and level of information sharing to foster conversation among your leadership on how to create greater data integration. Center for Health Care Strategies Integrating Physical and Behavioral Health Care in Medicaid Toolkit Section IV: Information Exchange CHCS has developed a rich resource for behavioral health integration.  This section focuses on information exchange, and has a number of helpful resources identified. Health Center Takeaway: The last two resources are integrated care plan templates; if you have an external behavioral health partner, consider how you might share data between the two organizations in a standardized format. Patient-Centered Primary Care Institute Behavioral Health Integration: Obstacles & Successes Lessons learned from this interview: Change the mindset from the bringing together of two services to truly integrating whole health Shift from historic care delivery methods to a focus on achieving better health outcomes Building trust with primary care providers is essential Health Center Takeaway: Determining what patients need will help guide the type of integration services your health center develops, which can include different approaches for different sites. SAMHSA’s Quick Start Guide to Behavioral Health Integration for Safety-Net Primary Care Providers This guide helps any health center think about where it is in the process of integrating behavioral health, with a number of embedded links for additional information. Key areas of Administration, Workforce, and Clinical Practice. Health Center Takeaway: Use this guide to identify barriers to a fully-developed program, and find resources to help overcome them. Zufall Health Center Integrated Behavioral Health and Primary Care Change Package Zufall Health Center partnered with a local behavioral health system to create an Integrated Behavioral Health system, using grant funding to help support the pilot. This collection of lessons learned focuses on: Leadership Commitment Clinical Information Systems and Measurable Improvement Integrated Care Delivery Clinical Decision Support Patient/Family Engagement Health Center Takeaway: Leadership must assess organizational capacity to collaborate, and then collect baseline data on health outcomes, including preventative screenings, ED visits, hospitalizations as some of the early steps. Implementing measurement and management of key clinical outcomes are critical next steps. NCQA Mainstreaming Behavioral Health Care NCQA has developed a Distinction in Behavioral Health Integration, which allows recognition of Patient Centered Medical Homes who have integrated care teams in place using evidence-based protocols and ongoing quality measurement and improvement. Health Center Takeaway: Many health centers have achieved recognition as a Patient Centered Medical Home PCMH or are along the way.  Aligning behavioral health integration work to earn this Distinction can help provide a roadmap for implementation of integration activities, and externally create validation for potential funders. How Intermountain Healthcare's Mental Health Integration is Improving Care Intermountain Healthcare is a large health system, with 22 hospitals and 180 clinics. It has been developing Mental Health Integration services for a number of years, with three key components: Their mental health assessment tool activates a team consultation workflow to determine which patients are referred. They designed an operational system in which mental health specialists and nurse care managers are included in the primary care staff, through full-time co-location or frequent rotation.They evaluate the program regularly to monitor patient outcomes, team effectiveness and the culture of healthcare delivery from the perspective of the patient and the care provider. Health Center Takeaway: Integrating behavioral health takes time. Intermountain Healthcare has created an efficient process to develop programs and they plan for two years to implement and become revenue-neutral. Health centers would benefit from a long-term approach with a commitment of upfront internal or external funding.   Deeper Reading If you are looking for more in-depth reading on the topic, visit the following links for longer articles. Electronic Health Record Challenges, Workarounds, and Solutions Observed in Practices Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care This Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine article describes the electronic health record EHR-related experiences of practices striving to integrate behavioral health and primary care using tailored, evidenced-based strategies from 2012 to 2014; and the challenges, workarounds and initial health information technology HIT solutions that emerged during implementation. Behavioral Health Information Network of Arizona: 2014 HIMSS HIE Community Roundtable This HIMSS presentation describes the design and implementation of a Health Information Exchange in Arizona that integrates behavioral health data and is 42 CFR Part 2 compliant.  Useful for any health center leadership involved in such a project with their affiliated Health Information Exchange. More Details...

Providing Trauma-Informed Care at Health Centers for HIV-Positive Men Who Have Sex With Men (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This brief offers health centers an introduction to providing trauma-informed care for HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM). The overall aims are to help health center staff understand the disproportionate prevalence of trauma and stress-related disorders among HIV-positive MSM, recognize the relationship of trauma to overall health and decreased engagement in primary care among HIV-positive MSM. This brief will also outline the promising practices in trauma-informed care to improve engagement of HIV-positive MSM in behavioral health and primary care. More Details...

SO/GI Data Collection Demonstration Videos (2018). Resource Type: Other. Description: These videos demonstrate best practices in sexual orientation and gender identity data collection. They address common questions and issues that arise for frontline and clinical staff when asking patients about their sexual orientation and gender identity. We hope these videos can provide a valuable training tool for health care staff looking for sample language and best practices. More Details...

Treating Global Health At Your Doorstep Starts with a Good Patient History: The most potent, cost-effective, and accurate diagnostic tool that we have even in our advanced age of technology remains an accurate and comprehensive linguistically and culturally appropriate patient history. (2018). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: Technology is a vital part of our society. It has been critical in the advancement of medicine; however, in some cases there is an overdependence by clinicians on diagnostic technology which may impede a fuller understanding of the circumstances of patients in the exam room. The most potent, cost-effective, and accurate diagnostic tool that we have even in our advanced age of technology remains an accurate and comprehensive linguistically and culturally appropriate patient history. In this webinar, Dr. Ed Zuroweste and Dr. Laszlo Madaras, who collectively have over 50 years of practice in primary care, ask the question, “Has it become so normal to ask for tests for the most basic assessments that part of the art of medicine is being lost?” The presenters will explore the value of taking a culturally and linguistically appropriate history from the patient together with a thorough – and focused – physical exam. Spending a few minutes with the patient asking open-ended questions may save time and money by: getting the correct diagnosis and treatment plan; preventing expensive, unnecessary, and potentially harmful tests; reducing the number of specialists who may not need to see the patient; and even possibly improving patient satisfaction. The session will look at the impact of global health conditions on primary care practice in the United States and describe what primary care clinics can do to more systematically prepare for emerging diseases. At the conclusion of the webinar, participants will be able to: More Details...