Although health centers have more options than ever to use electronic tools to engage patients in care, selecting those that most effectively further the goal of providing high-quality and efficient patient care is challenging. In this explainer, we consider three types of tools that health centers may invest in: Remote Patient Monitoring, Electronic Patient Engagement, and mHealth Personal Apps. By understanding what they are and how they are implemented, their advantages and disadvantages, and how they align with value-based care and the clinical workflow, health centers can choose the suite of tools that best serve their patient needs.

As medical care facilities seek to support patient safety and be responsive to their complete medical needs and histories, health centers also recognize that establishing an infrastructure for data sharing must be a top priority. Better practices for Health Information Exchange (HIE) increase patient wellbeing by giving providers more complete information for clinical decision making, eliminating unnecessary procedures and tests, reducing the burden of paperwork, and lowering costs. In 2020, HITEQ interviewed five groups that implemented clinical data sharing infrastructure in health care settings, including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). A set of example use cases were developed from these interviews, and we identified ten themes that may help guide other organizations interested in implementing HIE. Information from 1424 qualified health centers and health center look-alikes from the CY2019 Uniform Data Set also informed the current impact of data sharing, indicating that technology and potential workflows exist to support HIE within FQHCs.

View the key considerations gleaned from this research to identify lessons learned related to establishing HIE within a health center setting. The resource is available in the Documents to Download section below.

This Excel-based scoring rubric is intended to be used by health centers to assess electronic patient engagement tools (like automated outreach SMS platforms) to determine which tool is most likely to meet the health center's needs.

Lack of Internet and broadband access prevents some patients from using telehealth and other technology that can support their own health care and getting accurate health care information. In one 2020 study, 42 million Americans lacked adequate access to broadband (high speed internet). As of 2019, about one in five people did not have smartphones, and among low income people nearly one third do not have a smartphone. Rates of computer ownership are not much better. Those patients who do have access to the technology may or may not have the capacity and willingness to use it, depending on past experiences. Some patients aren't comfortable with technology, while others don't trust it or believe that virtual care is sub-par, despite growing evidence of its benefits. This culminates in a clear digital divide that can hinder the ability for patients to fully engage in their care or take advantage of things like remote
patient monitoring, telehealth, mHealth, or patient portal.
This resource provides an overview and some tips for assessing a patient's ability to engage with technology for virtual care, and and interventions that can be used to bridge gaps that are uncovered.

Food insecurity has doubled since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, and has tripled among families with children. Not having enough access to food is a key contributor to negative health outcomes for adults and children alike, and it is important now more than ever for health centers to identify and support patients who are experiencing food insecurity.
This resource is designed to support health center efforts to identify and assist patients who are experiencing food insecurity. It outlines key considerations around integrating social determinants of health (SDoH)-related screening and intervention into the electronic health record (EHR) workflow, highlights standardized screening tools and data elements to monitor the prevalence of food insecurity among patients, and describes several strategies to meet food-related needs.