Behavioral Health Integrator

This training guide provides patients with knowledge and awareness about cybersecurity threats to protect their personal health data and to minimize risks from computer viruses and malware.

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).¹
Massachusetts leadership and learning in telehealth have been a collaborative effort between Community Care Cooperative (C3) and the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers that together formed the FQHC Telehealth Consortium. In April 2020, the FQHC Telehealth Consortium began leadership calls with participating health centers to make progress on long-term telehealth strategy, with an initial focus on patient access and health center revenue. The FQHC Telehealth Consortium worked with Massachusetts health centers to develop a vision of telehealth maturity advancement and measurement specific to health centers, which, in turn, led to the development of a telehealth maturity model assessment tool to be applied across five domains.² This tool was used to conduct interviews in telehealth maturity in summer/fall 2020 and again in summer/fall 2021. The key objectives of measuring telehealth maturity were to:

1. Understand successes in implementation over the 18-month period from March 2020 through September 2021.
2. Identify areas for continued development and refinement of telehealth models in health centers in order to sustain telehealth past the pandemic.

In 2021, interviews, using the maturity assessment tool, were conducted with health center leaders from each of 34 Masssachusetts health centers. The tool assesses telehealth advancement across the domains of strategy and leadership, clinical integration, people, technology, and reimbursement and policy. During the 34 interviews, themes emerged as to where health centers need to focus their efforts to advance, as well as best practices and recommendations. This resource summarizes those themes, organized by experience, what to do now, and next steps, within each of the five domains. The intent is for the experiences of Massachusetts health centers to inform others across the country.

¹Health Center Program Uniform Data System (UDS) Data Overview 

² HITEQ Center - Assessing Telehealth Maturity in Health Centers: A report out on the progress of Massachusetts health centers in advancing telehealth during a pandemic

Download the resource in the Documents to Download Section below.

The coronavirus pandemic and consequent stay-at-home orders may increase danger for those at risk for or experiencing intimate partner violence and human trafficking (IPV/HT). Due to COVID-19, many health centers have shifted health encounters to virtual platforms, which offer unique opportunities to provide trauma-informed care and connect in new ways with those who may be experiencing abuse. Yet, telehealth and virtual visits also present health centers with new challenges related to privacy, safety and digital health equity. Given these changes in care delivery — and the inclusion of new Uniform Data System (UDS) data elements to capture IPV/HT diagnoses and services — health centers need information about how to identify and support patients at risk for or experiencing IPV/HT and leverage their health IT to provide and document care appropriately. In this webinar, presenters from the HITEQ Center and Futures Without Violence:

--Describe how health centers can implement an evidence-based, trauma-informed intervention for IPV/HT called CUES during virtual or in-person visits

--Review the newly included UDS data elements designed to capture IPV/HT diagnoses and services taking place within health centers

--Outline key considerations around privacy, safety, and equity for providing care through virtual platforms to patients at risk for or experiencing IPV/HT

--Feature promising strategies from health centers that have explored how to utilize health IT to support quality clinical care and data collection for IPV/HT

Health centers are having to dramatically change approaches to patient care as the COVID-19 public health emergency keeps patients at home and ramps up the demands of telehealth and other remote care modalities. This resource is a quick start guide for health centers making this change. 

The number of COVID-19 cases continue to increase throughout the United States, requiring more and more of our health systems to rely on employees working from home at times. While some of us are required to "shelter-in-place," unfortunately that shelter can create increased risks such as cyber security breaches.