Resource Search Results

Leveraging National Diabetes Prevention Programming For Your Health Center (2018). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: AAPCHO, in partnership with the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium hosted this webinar about the National Diabetes Prevention Program and discusses ways in which community health centers (CHCs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) can take advantage of local, state, regional, and national resources to improve diabetes screening and prevention practices to special and underserved populations throughout the Continental U.S., Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands. More Details...

Data Driven Programming to Maximize Care for Residents of Public Housing: Presented for National Nurse Care Consortium (NNCC) for health centers serving public housing patients (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This presentation walks public housing-focused health centers, such as those with public housing primary care grants, through available UDS reports and tools that can be used for informing services and planning. A number of specific examples are shown of how information from the UDS can be used for improvement. Other information provided serves as a reference for reporting of public housing on Table 4 of the UDS.  More Details...

NNOHA Health Center Workforce Survey Analysis of 2018 Results (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: NNOHA conducts a survey every 5 years to its members on the trends of the dental workforce in health centers. The most recent survey is from 2018. This document provides an analysis of the results from this survey. More Details...

Medical-Legal Partnership Origin Story: People's Community Clinic in Austin (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This issue brief traces an Austin TX health center's efforts to build an MLP, including planning process, how the nuts and bolts of the partnership came together, and how it’s expanded over time. More Details...

Transgender Health and Medical-Legal Partnerships (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This fact sheet describes common social and legal needs that affect the health of transgender individuals, and ways integrated legal services can help meet those needs. It examines medical-legal partnership programs at three health care organizations and how they operate, and it shares stories of people benefiting from medical-legal partnership services. More Details...

School-Based Health and Medical-Legal Partnerships (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This fact sheet describes common social and legal needs that affect the health of youth, and ways integrated legal services can help meet those needs. It examines medical-legal partnership programs at two school-based health centers and how they operate, and it shares stories of students benefiting from medical-legal partnership services. More Details...

Caring for Patients with Pain is a Team Sport (2018). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: In this webinar, the expert faculty at CHCI will look at the contribution of each member of the expanded care team in addressing needs of patients with chronic pain, and the strategies that support their work. More Details...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

The Role of Medical-Legal Partnership in Promoting Health Equity (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This article shares how more than nearly 400 hospitals, health centers, and clinics across the U.S. are using legal services to treat issues–including housing, access to insurance, and stable guardianship–that drive health inequities. This commentary was published as part of a special edition of Health Affairs on “Advancing Health Equity.” More Details...

How Medical-Legal Partnership Services Can Help Address the Opioid Crisis (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: This issue brief from the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership examines how legal services delivered alongside medical and behavioral health services can help support successful recovery from substance use disorders. More Details...

Beyond the Walls: Effectively Utilizing Community Health Workers and Clinical Home Visitors as Part of the Team (2018). Resource Type: Archived Webinar. Description: In this webinar, we will focus on team members who work with patients in various capacities beyond the walls of the exam room but make an enormous contribution to clinical outcomes. Participants will learn about their connections to the team, and the effective outcomes that result from their patient engagement. More Details...

Effective Social Media Management for Health Centers: Infographic Poster (2018). Resource Type: Publication. Description: Maintaining a good name in the digital era is becoming increasingly important as social media tools and platforms continue to expand the services they offer. As a health center, having a professional social media presence is becoming an influential channel in which to engage patient populations. Maintaining a good name in the digital era is becoming increasingly important as social media tools and platforms continue to expand the services they offer. As a health center, having a professional social media presence is becoming an influential channel in which to engage patient populations. These channels enable physicians and health groups to communicate and share information quickly while reaching millions of people. However, these same channels and other social media activities also create new challenges for the patient-physician relationship. In the current health care environment, health centers often don’t have the time or resources to effectively manage their own social media presence.  The HITEQ Center has gathered this brief list of tips and resources to help health centers get started with managing and maintaining a professional and engaging social media presence for their health center. Think Before You Post Above all else, make sure that you are complying with all privacy and security requirements before you post to social media. It is better to be slow in responding, rather than unknowingly violating HIPAA regulations. Have 2-3 people review a post before submitting. When dealing with patient information, be cognizant of the standards of patient privacy and confidentiality just as you would in any other context. There are boundaries to the patient-physician relationship that must be maintained—online and off. Never post identifiable patient information online and monitor your own internet presence to ensure that personal and professional information are kept separate. Also, be wary of inadvertently committing an act that constitutes medical malpractice. The National Association of Community Health Center’s NACHC guide to social media and medical malpractice relates two main areas of concern when it comes to social media, technology, and medical malpractice: 1 Committing an act that constitutes potential malpractice; and 2 the impact of social media use on a potential or pending malpractice proceeding. Know Your Audience Understanding your audience is key if you want to ensure patient and stakeholder engagement. The message you want to disseminate should resonate with your target audience. NACHC’s guide to Social Media for Health Centers relates that it is important to not stray too far from the types of topics that brought people to your site in the first place.  Try to understand how a user might receive your message if you want it to stick. Doing so can help you engage with past, current, and potential patients through meaningful and relevant content. This can encourage discussions and build credibility. Understanding your audience is also a great way to get to know your patients and stakeholders; it can help you learn about their experiences with the health center, identify their pain points, and uncover new ways to improve care. Engage Your Population Respond to all messages, including both praise and criticism. As Dr. John Halamka writes, “We don’t make excuses. We try to take it offline as soon as we can. We send a direct message to the reviewer.” Customer service shouldn’t stop when you go online. Developing an online relationship with patients and stakeholders is critical in upholding your health center’s values in customer service and relations. Enhancing online communication between the physician and patient is one way to maintain that relationship. This means responding to their comments and questions, especially if it’s a complaint, is a professional and timely manner. Immediately connect with the user to resolve the issue. Practice Quality Having a social media presence comes with the responsibility to report violating content. The AMA writes that if you “see content posted by colleagues that appears unprofessional… bring that content to the attention of the individual, so that he or she can remove it and/or take other appropriate actions.” Also, recognize that your own actions online and the content you post may negatively affect you or your health center’s reputation. Be aware of the consequences and how they can undermine your reputation and public trust. More Details...