As the country’s health care delivery system adopts improvements necessitated by the drive for lower costs and higher quality, Community Health Centers must adapt, advance, and innovate. The Center for Community Health Innovation (CCHI) will work to identify, support, and replicate groundbreaking approaches to practice innovation, workforce development, and collaborative arrangements in the delivery of community-based health care.
The CCHI will evaluate existing best and promising practices and determine opportunities for value and scalability to further the health center mission. The goal of the CCHI is to prepare Community Health Centers for sustainable operational and clinical success, building on their unique, 50-plus-year history and commitment to equity and access.
Our Mission
To serve as a catalyst for innovation at America’s Community Health Centers and to help advance future-focused approaches that increase access to affordable, equitable, quality health care for all.
The Center’s work is supported by a generous grant from the RCHN Community Health Foundation.
For more information, please contact us at innovation@nachc.org.
Announcements
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Health Center Innovation Incubator
NACHC, through its Center for Community Health Innovation, in partnership with NACHC’s experts from Informatics, Population Health, and Training and Technical Assistance and with funding support from the global healthcare company Abbott, has designed a new initiative to guide health centers in using a human-centered design approach to improve health equity by addressing digital and health literacy. With initial seed funding, access to leading experts, and training on human-centered design principles, selected health centers will design and test their solutions – all with the broader goal of sharing what works with health centers nationwide. The NACHC Innovation Incubator program will launch in March 2023. Learn more here.
Innovictionary
CCHI has built an innovation dictionary – the Innovictionary, to define innovation tools and concepts with a health center lens and provide curated resources. We are currently building the second version of the Innovictionary and want your help! As part of the second version, we would like to highlight case studies of health centers, PCAs, and HCCNs utilizing the terms listed on the Innovictionary.
Has your organization implemented an innovation term? Share it with us here.
Workforce of the Future Challenge.
Take a look on the Health Center Innovation Guide so you can implement your own program to build a workforce pipeline with youth engagement!
CCHI congratulates Open Door Family Medical Center (NY)! Their innovative program engages the youth of today to create a diverse workforce pipeline in the future. Congratulations to the other finalists and their continued work to develop the health center workforce of the future including Colorado Community Health Network (CO), El Centro Family Health (NM), New Health (WA), and Urban Health Plan (NY).
Lifting Promising Workforce Practices & Partnerships Challenge – Application Closed
In collaboration with NACHC’s Quality Center, the CCHI seeks to identify four PCAs/HCCNs to lift an innovative workforce practice or partnership in their state/region. We believe that the innovative practices we put in place today can help address current workforce challenges and prepare us to better face the challenges of tomorrow.
Award Amount: $50,000
Application Deadline: October 7th, 2022
Thank you for your interest, the application is now closed for the “Lifting Promising Workforce Practices & Partnerships”.
Mobile Units Innovation Challenge.
Recently the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) and the Leon Lowenstein Family Foundation awarded six NACHC Organization Member health centers $10,000 each to support their mobile health programs. NACHC received nearly seven times as many applicants, so congratulations to our winners and thank you to all those that applied. An additional shoutout to Brockton Neighborhood Health Center for being selected as the “People’s Choice Award”. After almost 3,800 votes in a one-week competition, Brockton will receive an additional $2,500 to create marketing materials for their mobile unit.
- Kodiak Community Health Center (Kodiak, Alaska): adapted a 4-wheeler trailer to provide COVID-19 tests, vaccines, and treatment.
- Chiricahua Community Health Center (Benson, Arizona): the “Big Blue Bus” and “Hope on Wheels” provided childhood vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, also piloting at-home visits with the mobile unit.
- Golden Valley Health Centers (Merced, California): enhanced and sustained partnerships including with a local little league team for childhood vaccines and well-child checks during COVID-19.
- TrueCare (San Marcos, California): outfitted mobile units for hybrid telehealth services, a telehealth coordinator assisted with patient navigation, and are piloting at-home visits with the mobile unit.
- Brockton Neighborhood Health Center (Brockton, Massachusetts): Community Care-in-Reach program provides substance use and harm reduction services including advanced drug checking technology.
- United Neighborhood Health Services (Nashville, Tennessee): a multi-organization coalition provided COVID-19 tests and vaccines to people experiencing homelessness, achieved a higher vaccination rate in the homeless population than the general adult population.