Clinical Initiatives
NACHC currently partners with Primary Care Associations (PCAs), Health Center Controlled Networks (HCCNs), health centers, and other organizations to address key clinical issues facing health centers. Recent projects have been supported by the Health Resources & Services Administrationās Bureau of Primary Health Care, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DentaQuest Foundation, A.T. Still University, the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and the Denver Health and Hospital Authority.
In the past year, NACHC has invested over $4.6 million In clinical projects in the health center field, worked with 152 different community health centers in 38 states and with 23 different PCAs and HCCNs. Investing in information technology and quality improvement infrastructure at health centers remains a high priority.
NACHC’s clinical projects are guided by internal and external subject experts and currently include pilot models, proofs of concept, prototypes, and learning communities. View the latest fact sheet on CDC projects.
Adolescent Sexual & Reproductive Health
NACHC and partnering health center and health department organizations have been assessing ways to overcome barriers to prevent teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and protect Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH). Telehealth has been used to expand access to ASRH services.
Resources
- Scheduling staff: Consider telehealth for these types of visits
- Clinical Care team: Consider telehealth for these types of services
- Did You Know? Engaging Community Partners can Improve Adolescent Access to Telehealth
Adult Immunization
NACHC is working to improve the delivery of adult influenza and routine vaccination services and reduce vaccination services disparities among underserved adult populations by increasing implementation of the Standards for Adult Immunization Practice at health centers that currently offer adult vaccination services.
Resources
Strategies to Address Policy Barriers to Adult Immunizations in Federally Qualified Health Centers
Cancer Screening
NACHC’s cancer screening projects aim to advance and scale a cancer screening transformation approach developed through previous CDC-funded work to improve colorectal and cervical cancer screening in health centers. This project will synthesize actionable findings from the pilot, develop a technical package for broad use, support implementation, disseminate technical package for national spread, and scale and evaluate implementation experience.
Resource
Heart Disease and Stroke
NACHC aims to use a multi-pronged approach to achieve positive impacts on two key Million HeartsĀ® 2022 goals: optimizing care that prevents heart attacks and strokes and improving cardiovascular health outcomes for priority populations. Visit NACHC’s Million HeartsĀ® initiative page for more information.
Hepatitis B and C
This project endeavors to advance Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C integration in primary care and implementation of the National Viral Hepatitis Action Plan 2017- 2020.
Resources
HIV/PrEP Resources
New PrEP Guidelines: Systems Level Reforms to Maximize PrEP: Completed
Recording: https://youtu.be/DvCb1KsTdnw
PPT: https://www.nachc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FINAL_5.4-Webinar_5.3.22eb.pdf
CDCās PrEP Clinical Practice Guideline and Strategies for Ending the HIV Epidemic:
Recording: https://youtu.be/voBJDCsAM24
PPT: https://www.nachc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FINAL_PrEP-Webinar_5.19.22.pdf
Implementation Tools and Resources for Enhancing Equity-Focused PrEP Services Learning Collaborative
Session 1:
Recording: https://youtu.be/EI9pmQw7SQk
PPT: https://www.nachc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FINAL_5.12-Prep-Event_5.11.22eb.pdf
Session 2:
Recording: https://youtu.be/sJib8SovUlg
PPT: https://www.nachc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FINAL_5.19-Prep-Event_5.19.22eb.pdf
Opioids
NACHC worked with the CVS Health Foundation to integrate addiction medicine into primary care. āInnovative Approaches for Prescription Drug Abuse Management and Preventionā was a 12-month learning community designed to help health centers build capacity for providing integrated behavioral health services in communities with high incidence of substance use and abuse. There were three cohorts.
Resources
Video, Podcast and Blog post highlighting the work of health centers as part of NACHC learning community
Documentation & Charge Capture Process: Medication-Assisted Treatment
Business Plan for Medication Assisted Treatment
Oral Health
NACHC is working to ensure the integration of oral health and primary care and to improve access to oral health through partnerships and academic collaborations to build the oral health workforce, the use of subject matter expertise to build oral health capacity, and by profiling innovative models in health centers.
As part of the Agricultural Worker Children Dental Sealant Pilot, NACHC developed a Social Determinants of Health Caries Risk Assessment.
Resource
Oral Health Value-Based Care: The Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) Story
Pediatric Obesity
In partnership with Healthy Weight Partnership, NACHC is implementing the Mind, Exercise, Nutrition, Do It! (MEND) 7-13 Program with 16 health centers in 5 states. The project aims to improve health outcomes for children aged 7-13 with obesity or who are overweight and at risk for obesity.
Resources
Postpartum Diabetes Screening
NACHC is working to build the capacity of health centers to screen, refer, track, and follow-up with women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), including the design of a model to increase postpartum screening and counseling and dissemination of evidence-based prevention and management guidelines. In Year 1, NACHC will design a model and strategy to improve diabetes control among GDM-affected pregnancies by increasing postpartum diabetes screening, increasing postpartum contraception counseling, and building capacity for the use of evidence-based interventions. Years 2-5 of the project, if funded, will focus on implementation and scale.
Resource
Postpartum Diabetes Screening Fact Sheet
Reproductive Health
Current projects aim to advance contraception practice guideline adoption in health centers and support providers in facilitating patient-centered care and making evidence-based decisions, leading to improved access to and use of contraception and lower rates of unintended pregnancy. Methods will include validation of current quality measures to look at the ways that contraceptive care is being delivered at community health centers and enhancing access to current contraception practice guidelines by providers and their teams.
Resources
Documentation & Change Capture Process: LARC Services
Contraceptive Practice Guidelines Fact Sheet
Advancing Quality Family Planning Practices: A Guide For Health Centers provides guidance to health centers wishing to expand and improve access to quality family planning and reproductive health services in their community.
Tobacco Cessation
NACHC is working to adapt the Million HeartsĀ®ā Tobacco Cessation Change Package (TCCP), specifically for health centers. The main ālesson learnedā during this pilot was that multi-disciplinary strategies are most successful. Health centers have assets in the dental, pharmacy, and behavioral health departments that make perfect partners in tobacco cessation efforts.
Resources
Tobacco Cessation Resource Guide for Health Centers
Multidisciplinary Model for Tobacco Cessation
Tobacco Cessation Patient Case Study
Reimbursement Tips: FQHC Requirements for Tobacco Cessation Counseling
Learning from Health Centers: Tobacco Cessation Measures that Work
Past Clinical Initiatives
Food Insecurity
Community Health Centers as Food Oasis Partners: Addressing Food Insecurity for Patients and Communities
NACHC, with support from the Medtronic Foundation, completed a project on food insecurity, the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable nutritious food. The Community Health Centers as Food Oasis Partners: Addressing Food Insecurity for Patients and Communities project sought to understand the depth and breadth of what health centers do every day to assure their patients and communities have access to nutritious food.
The project aimed to gain insight into innovative and promising practices, to collect and share examples of program designs that are replicable and sustainable and to understand ways in which food security interventions are impacting health outcomes in target populations.
Publication
The Community Health Centers as Food Oasis Partners: Addressing Food Insecurity for Patients and Communities report summarizes the findings of the Community Health Centers as Food Oasis Partners project. Explore selected sections below or download the full publication.
Key stakeholders from 14 diverse community health centers share replicable and sustainable promising practices
Food Oasis Partners At a Glance
Information about local, regional and national organizations involved in addressing food insecurity
Getting Started with Your Own Food Insecurity Program
Recommendations for health centers that wish to take steps to address food insecurity in their communities
Reflections and Recommendations from Health Centers
Words of wisdom from health centers addressing food insecurity as an integrated part of their primary care services
Definitions for common terms related to food insecurity
Video
Health Centers Fighting Food Insecurity
This nine-minute video features the patients and staff of Community Health Service Agency, Inc., in Greenville, Texas; Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation in Whitesburg, Kentucky; and Native Health in Phoenix, Arizona.
Podcasts
This three-part podcast series explores the food insecurity programs at Brockton Neighborhood Health Center in Brockton, Massachusetts; Native Health in Phoenix, Arizona; and Bread for the City in Washington, D.C.
Health Centers and Food Insecurity #1
Health Centers and Food Insecurity #2
Health Centers and Food Insecurity #3
Additional Resources
This report reviews existing and emerging opportunities to document food insecurity screening, assessment, intervention, and billing for each part of a patient visit using discrete codes and language from standardized EHR medical vocabularies.
LGBT Health
NACHC and partners supported 10 health centers in 9 states working on improving health outcomes for their LGBT patients. Health center quality improvement teams participated in a practice improvement collaborative, and each health center had a provider champion attend a bi-weekly Project ECHO meeting focused on LGBT health. Much of the work included training staff to provide clinically appropriate, culturally responsible care, creating a physical environment that is welcoming to all patients including LGBT patients, collecting patient sexual orientation and gender identity data, and engaging patients in conversations about their sexual health.
Resource
The Transforming Primary Care for LGBT People Toolkit compiles promising practices around identifying LGBT patients and engaging LGBT patients in culturally responsible, clinically competent care. Priority interventions are supported with implementation tips, tools, and resources.
