This compendium of references and tools is intended to support Quality Improvement efforts and to build skills across health center staff, particular those who may be tasked with leading data literacy and data governance activities or are new to the health center world. 

The HITEQ Center interviewed ten health centers and health center partners to identify solutions and promising practices for addressing childhood obesity across the health center program. The focus included how health centers are meeting the Uniform Data System (UDS) measure and how they are taking further steps to identify and intervene with those at risk of obesity leveraging health information technology, electronic health records, and the data they have. Seven key areas are identified in the resulting issue brief.

In early 2018, KLAS researchers issued a report stating that the CommonWell-Carequality connection is the key to interoperability value^1,2. It is believed that when vendors fully embrace CommonWell and Carequality “instant value” will be created for users. This is an appealing promise to all healthcare providers, including health centers. So what should health centers know about this effort, and how should they prepare to capture the benefits?

The collection of data related to patients' non-medical needs through use of Social Determinant of Health (SDoH) assessment tools, can accelerate systemic population health improvement, as well as engage patients in addressing their social non-medical needs (such as transportation, shelter, or intimate partner violence services) through coordinated access to appropriate services or community-based supports. This case study discusses the process a health center may use to identify and stratify need, and profiles a number of community referral platforms, including Aunt Bertha, Now Pow, and 211 Community Information Exchange, for connecting patients to appropriate community resources.

This HITEQ Highlights webinar discussed the use of health information technologies (IT) to facilitate the workflow of providing Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) services. Focus areas included: coding and billing for SBIRT services, using health IT to enhance SBIRT screening, communication, data capture and documentation, clinical decision support, and information sharing and reporting. The webinar presented examples and experiences of health centers currently using health IT to facilitate effective SBIRT service delivery.