Data Storyteller

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 Streamlining IT Infrastructure for a Successful Telehealth Program learning collaborative series focused on best practices, common solutions, key considerations, and other strategies for success when implementing telehealth technologies in a health center. 

Health centers participated in four structured virtual sessions where they engaged with subject matter expert, Rachel Dixon, President and Executive Director of Prime Health, and in didactic learning and peer sharing and discussion. Session topics included: assessing technology and identifying best practices for streamlining telehealth workflows, aligning telehealth technology with financial sustainability, telehealth technology vendor considerations, and operationalizing telehealth technology strategies.

This series was particular to health centers and oriented to:

• Health centers that may have started a telehealth program, but pulled back and are not sure how to go forward, or

• Health centers that have started telehealth implementation, have some experience and are ready to take a step back and reassess the technology you are using, and

• Health centers that are ready to think about alignment of their telehealth strategy with long term financial stability.

The HITEQ Center hosted a learning collaborative for health centers on Addressing Provider Burden. This learning collaborative provided a space for discussion and sharing compassionate, well designed, and digital-first solutions. Health center participants had the opportunity to discuss interventions, implementation, training, and ongoing support for meaningfully integrated digital solutions to effectively support reducing provider burden.

This learning collaborative provided health centers with a series of four structured virtual sessions to engage with subject matter experts and their colleagues in peer-to-peer learning and discussion. Topics from these series included EHR best training practices, workflow support, and documentation support. Throughout the series, participants were encouraged to consider the broad scope of provider burnout and the opportunities their particular settings may have for meaningful interventions.

All sessions are scheduled to begin at 1:30 ET and will last between 60 - 90 minutes. The session schedule is:
--June 9: Session 1 - Scoping Provider Burnout as a Problem with a Solution
--June 23: Session 2 - EHR Training Best Practices
--July 14: Session 3 - Workflow and Documentation Support
--July 28: Session 4 - Provider Burnout Round-Up

Health centers interested in participating in this learning collaborative series can submit one registration form on behalf of their health center. Health center registrations can include up to three participants in their form.

This session focused on assisting with workflow and documentation improvements like standing orders, huddles and alerts; telehealth/ hybrid care workflows; and optimizing templates, documentation guidance, tracking regulatory/ reimbursement changes that require documentation changes, and more. The speaker shared tools to assist with documentation such as scribes, tailoring favorites/ smart phrases/ shortcuts, etc.

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.