Childhood Obesity Preventer

Many health centers struggle to reap the benefits of technological advancement and investments in health information technology (health IT), while others embrace them and reap rewards. Interoperability is one such example; requiring health centers assess systems, relationships, and implementation.

There are keys to successful interoperability implementation for which health centers must develop processes, stand up infrastructure (within the system, internally and externally, and organization), and then take action.

Process refers to structured processes, policies, and procedures within the health center.

Infrastructure refers to structural capacity and ability within the health center’s technology and staffing structure.

Action refers to full implementation to the point of active and ongoing use and engagement.

This scorecard encourages health centers to consider their processes, infrastructure, and action in a number of key areas. Each area key to interoperability are to be self-graded on a scale of 1 through 5, where 1 is poorly or not yet developed and 5 is well developed. Health centers can also use this to guide discussions and monitor progress over time.

Are you capturing information like immigration or refugee status, intimate partner violence, human trafficking, risk of acquiring HIV through sexual contact or substance use disorder, or other information that brings up questions about how to document or code while respecting the patient’s privacy?

This health center learning collaborative series will present health center case examples that explore the privacy and data sharing considerations of EHR documentation of sensitive patient information, such as social history and social risk, and encourage participants to discuss the implications for health centers and their patients. 

Are you capturing information like immigration or refugee status, intimate partner violence, human trafficking, risk of acquiring HIV through sexual contact or substance use disorder, or other information that brings up questions about how to document or code while respecting the patient’s privacy?

This health center learning collaborative series presented health center case examples that explore the privacy and data sharing considerations of EHR documentation of sensitive patient information, such as social history and social risk, and encourage participants to discuss the implications for health centers and their patients. 

Are you capturing information like immigration or refugee status, intimate partner violence, human trafficking, risk of acquiring HIV through sexual contact or substance use disorder, or other information that brings up questions about how to document or code while respecting the patient’s privacy?

This health center learning collaborative series presented health center case examples that explored the privacy and data sharing considerations of EHR documentation of sensitive patient information, such as social history and social risk, and encouraged participants to discuss the implications for health centers and their patients. 

Are you capturing information like immigration or refugee status, intimate partner violence, human trafficking, risk of acquiring HIV through sexual contact or substance use disorder, or other information that brings up questions about how to document or code while respecting the patient’s privacy?

This health center learning collaborative series presented health center case examples that explored the privacy and data sharing considerations of EHR documentation of sensitive patient information, such as social history and social risk, and encouraged participants to discuss the implications for health centers and their patients. 

Are you capturing information like immigration or refugee status, intimate partner violence, human trafficking, risk of acquiring HIV through sexual contact or substance use disorder, or other information that brings up questions about how to document or code while respecting the patient’s privacy?

This health center learning collaborative series presented health center case examples that explored the privacy and data sharing considerations of EHR documentation of sensitive patient information, such as social history and social risk, and encouraged participants to discuss the implications for health centers and their patients. 

Health centers are actively expanding the substance use treatment services they offer in the community to address access to care for opioid use disorders, and more broadly to address better screening, referral and timely access to all substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. The downloadable case study below is an example of how a health center is assessing operations to comply with 42 CFR Part 2, with a particular focus on changes to their health information technology (IT) systems.

As more health centers seek to break down siloes that can fragment patient care, collaboration with or integration of behavioral health care has been strengthened, although data integration remains difficult and privacy remains paramount. This brief discusses some of the approaches, successes, and challenges in integrating behavioral health data within primary care services.

Data visualizations in many forms can be incredibly valuable in helping health center staff and leadership move from a passive understanding of the data to active support of health IT enabled, data driven quality improvement approaches. While introducing visualizations can create immediate value and understanding, ensuring that their full value is realized requires that stakeholders be fully engaged and understand how visualizations (such as dashboards) can support decision making.

This fact sheet explains the Meaningful Use Modified Stage 2 Health Information Exchange (HIE) requirements in Objective 5.