Provider satisfaction is of critical importance for health centers to promote safety and workforce stability. A 2013 survey found that dissatisfied physicians were 2-3 times more likely to leave medical practice than their more satisfied colleagues. This may be unsurprising given that another recent study found that physicians spend almost half of their day on the EHR and desk work. Even during the patient visit, 37 percent of the time in the exam room is spent on these tasks. The increase in clerical and documentation burden related to EHR adoption was cited as a contributor to provider dissatisfaction. This resource puts forth several options for assessing provider satisfaction or burden, with a focus on health IT. Results of recent research as to the challenges that providers experience are outlined, and then several possible health IT interventions are profiled.

Healthcare organizations are flooding with data. Health centers have a wealth of data about their patients and their community. It is essential that these organizations  build a strong foundation of people, processes and technology to leverage that data to improve care and better serve the underserved.

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.

Provider satisfaction is of critical importance for health centers to promote safety and workforce stability. Organizations may be working to reduce burden or increase satisfaction of the provider workforce. This worksheet is intended to assist organizations in operationalizing the information set forth in HITEQ’s Assessing Provider Satisfaction: Designing health IT interventions to improve satisfaction and reduce burden.

This brief presentation provides some ideas for tackling small quality improvement tasks that can generate some quick wins or provide helpful insight when considering larger health IT enabled quality improvement projects. Gather your quality improvement team to review and start with one of these small efforts.

Launching quality work at first can feel like a daunting task – even more so if you do not have the support of leadership in your organization.  Some individuals have successfully launched quality work by following the mantra: “What can I get done by next Tuesday?”  This mantra helps them sidestep inertia, extensive collaboration, and time consuming benchmarking research. Instead, by identifying small steps they can take to improve quality on their own, within the context of their existing job, they can start on the journey quickly. Furthermore, success in these small steps can help with Leadership Buy-In for the importance of Quality work.

This analysis from Capital Link examines the operating models, strategies, and practices of high-performing health centers to better understand the factors that work for and against the co-occurrence of strong clinical performance and financial sustainability.

The document describes a detailed, 10-step process with decision trees and financial models for providers to use when making the case for and considering changes in payment and service delivery.  The document also outlines the kinds of data required in order to submit a sound business case.  This document is also accompanied by a webinar describing it and how to use it.

This white paper explores what is bringing a health center to the world of Health IT Enabled QI and lays out some motivating factors and barriers as well as what skill areas may need further consideration in planning next steps.

Drawing on recently published research from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s EvidenceNOW initiative, Dr. Samuel Edwards shared insights for primary care practices seeking to assess and address provider burnout. Dr. Edwards highlighted associations between the use of quality improvement strategies, EHR capabilities, and satisfaction among practices with zero-burnout versus high-burnout. Key, and sometimes surprising, takeaways regarding leadership, workplace environment and culture, EHR use, and more from this research were discussed.