HITEQ Resources & Events

This learning collaborative by the HITEQ Center to discussed health center promising practices and key considerations to support the successful collection, monitoring, and addressing of social needs data. During the series participants explored the levels of maturity in the social needs screening implementation process. Participants gained information on concrete strategies and IT solutions that will help to improve internal systems, such as EHR utilization and care team workflows, and increase their capacity to advance individual and population-level health.  Health center exemplars will be showcased.

Access to care is the essential work of health centers, and one pain point is how to ensure specialty access for health center patients. This webinar will discuss innovation in specialty care access using technology and e-Consults. Electronic consultations (“e-consults”) are asynchronous, consultative, provider-to-provider communications within a shared electronic health record (EHR) or web-based platform. E-consults are intended to improve access to specialty expertise for patients and providers without the need for a face-to-face visit.  The Maven Project joined the webinar to talk about the particular challenges in specialty care access in health centers and how e-consults can both improve access and support clinicians, including to help to reduce stress and burnout. The Maven Project supports front-line providers in delivering comprehensive care to patients at health centers and community clinics nationwide.

The importance of effective pediatric immunization strategies cannot be understated at this moment in public health. Given all the potential barriers to access, how can technology support primary care in improving systems for effective vaccine uptake? Hear from Dr. Melissa Stockwell, whose research includes translational health IT interventions to promote vaccination as well as the use of large-scale, patient-centered communication technologies, like text messaging, for surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases and adverse events. Dr. Stockwell is Chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Health and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons) and Population and Family Health (Mailman School of Public Health). She is Founding Director of the Department of Pediatrics' Center for Children's Digital Health Research.

This HITEQ Highlights webinar presented promising practices and key considerations informed by health centers across the US who are successfully collecting, monitoring, and addressing social need data. 

Health centers are increasingly interested in implementing social need screening tools to identify ways to advance whole-person care and community-level health. However, implementing social needs screening tools requires a great deal of investment with regards to securing buy-in from leadership and staff, configuring the EHR, and developing processes and workflows for addressing positive screens. While addressing social needs in the context of healthcare is not new, systematically collecting, monitoring, and acting on data is an emerging space. With many health centers now trialing this implementation process, there are a number of promising practices that might be valuable to health centers considering this next step. This webinar offered key takeaways and examples to guide health centers through the implementation process, or help health centers with existing social needs screening programs to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement in their EHRs and workflows.

This was the second of the approximately 5 listening sessions HITEQ is hosting through the end of 2022. The purpose of these listening sessions is to understand the gaps in resources and guidance for health centers in specific areas of focus. HITEQ is bringing HCCNs and PCAs to the table for these in order to get the invaluable perspective of those who work with the health centers each day as well as where HITEQ can share valuable national insight.

PCAs and HCCNs who are working on SDoH-specific activities with their health centers, as well as those considering ways to assist their health centers with social risk screening should join for peer sharing. Register using the form below or email HITEQinfo@jsi.com to join!