The Performance Measure Data Definition Worksheet can be used during the Quality Improvement (QI) process to assess the alignment of your health center’s workflows and documentation and your EHR vendor’s reporting logic processes.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) EHR Certification criteria requires EHR vendors to use eCQM (electronic Clinical Quality Measure) specifications to define measures. Therefore, reported data for a measure should be consistent regardless of EHR vendor. In practice, however, it is important to confirm that your EHR vendor’s reporting logic is consistent with your health center’s definition and workflows, and vice versa, as outlined in this worksheet.

The Social Determinants of Health Data Dashboards training is a four module series. Modules range from about 8 minutes to 12 minutes in length. Module one provides an introduction to the role of screening and collecting data on social determinants of health, identifying social determinants of health measures and using data effectively, and assessing organizational data dashboard capability. Subsequent modules provide beginner, intermediate and advanced level considerations and examples for social determinants of health data dashboards. 

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. 

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.

This presentation walks public housing-focused health centers, such as those with public housing primary care grants, through available UDS reports and tools that can be used for informing services and planning. A number of specific examples are shown of how information from the UDS can be used for improvement. Other information provided serves as a reference for reporting of public housing on Table 4 of the UDS. 

Data dashboards help communicate information to your health center staff, clinicians and partners. However the development process can be daunting. Where do I start? Who is part of the process? What tools should I use? Many people start by choosing the tool, but before identifying the tool, it is helpful to think through the users and the design process. This primer walks you through steps to dashboard design and how to choose the right dashboard tool.

More than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, it is now obvious that telehealth — in the form of a hybrid care delivery model that blends virtual and in-person care — is not a fad, but a healthcare delivery option that is here to stay. Healthcare leaders are seeking to optimize their organization's telehealth services for high performance and long-term sustainability. The problem is that most leaders neither know how well (or how bad) their telehealth services are performing, nor what true success can or should look like.   Telehealth, when designed and implemented correctly, will engage patients to achieve positive outcomes, delight physicians, and contribute to organizational strategic objectives, including sustainable financial success.  In this presentation, Christian Milaster of Ingenium Digital Health Advisors leads viewers through a series of pragmatic concepts on how to set an organization’s telehealth success targets, what and how to measure telehealth performance, the Physician Bill of Telehealth Rights, and how to leverage telehealth to achieve strategic success. This presentation is the second session of a two-part series. The first session focused on a telehealth maturity model and is available here.

This simple Excel file dashboard was shared by an existing FQHC and is used to depict performance on UDS measures over time.

This can be used to communicate with staff or monitor performance on UDS measures, and can be modified for use with other measures. There is also a tab with some real world advice on creating and using basic data monitoring dashboards included on the first tab.

As health centers become increasingly more digitized, there is often a feeling of being data rich but information poor. How can healthcare organizations maximize the value of data and build a data-driven culture? The answer lies in data governance. When managed like any other strategic asset – human resources, capital, facilities, or brand – data becomes a differentiator in the pursuit of high value, cost effective health care. In this webinar, the HITEQ Center presented the essentials of good data management processes and introduce the Center for Care Innovation’s Data Governance Handbook, offering ideas for action and tools to improve data quality, increase data literacy, and maximize access to data.

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The nonprofit sector produces a wealth of data that plays a fundamental role in the strategic and operational decision making and learning. Nevertheless, many organizations face major challenges with storing and integrating data produced in the field, limiting decision and learning capacity. Data warehousing and integration is an approach that could help fill this gap. However, it raises challenges in terms of responsible data management. This session will discuss the major conceptual, programmatic and technical considerations needed to implement responsible data principles and approaches, at different levels (field, region, global) and scenarios.

Please join Alvaro Cobo-Santillan, Senior Advisor MEAL/ICT at Catholic Relief Services (CRS); Jeff Lundberg, Senior Program Manager at CRS; Paul Perrin, Director and Associate Professor of the Practice at University of Notre Dame; and Gillian Kerr, President Emeritus at LogicalOutcomes Canada in a repeat of their popular session from this year’s MERL TECH DC 2017 Conference.

This session will be led by Dr. Yalda Jabbarpour, family physician in the Department of Family Medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine who will discuss the impact of primary care practice transformation on cost quality, and utilization. Dr. Jabbarpour is a member of the Robert Graham Center which aims to improve individual and population healthcare delivery through research and policy.

OPCA recently fielded a Data and Quality Improvement Survey to Oregon’s FQHCs, which helped foster a better understanding of clinics’ current data/QI capacities and capabilities. One common challenge that emerged was that of systematizing and sustaining data and quality improvement structures. As a result, this event is designed to dive deep into effective data and quality improvement systems, and will include a variety of activities including guest presentations, small group discussions, sharing of best practices and action planning.

The 8th Annual Health Datapalooza is the gathering place for people and organizations creating knowledge from data and pioneering innovations that drive health policy and practice. Registration is available for attendance via webinar and in-person.

This health center-tested Dental Dashboard, created by NNOHA and partners, is an interactive resource that allows users to monitor a set of dental measures through an online data collection tool and a chart presentation tool, allowing monitoring of performance and opportunities for QI. A case study is also included.

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.

The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) created this document to provide health centers with a better understanding of data analytics, the current capabilities of these tools, and the critical vendor selection and contracting issues related to the consideration, selection, implementation, and use of a data product. It is written to help health centers make informed decisions when it comes to determining how to build and use this business intelligence capability within their organizations.