Health center controlled network - proposed project: the SC primary health care association (SCPHCA) proposes to continue to administer and advance the SC health center controlled network (SCHCCN)

The SCHCCN aims to enhance infrastructure that supports south carolina's existing and future participating health center (PHC) program award recipients and look-alikes (health centers). To date, the SCHCCN's infrastructure development focused on the foundational elements required for effective utilization of health information technology (HIT). The SCHCCN now proposes to expand the infrastructure to better support phcs in addressing issues that affect their ability to: (1) patient engagement; (2) patient privacy and cybersecurity; (3) social risk factor intervention; (4) disaggregated patient level data; (5) interoperable data exchange and integration; (6) data utilization; (7) leveraging data health tools; (8) health IT usability and adoption; (9) health equity; and (10) improving digital health tools. Needs to be addressed: all SC health centers currently have a 2015 ONC certified EHR system, however, the EHR vendors aren't currently updated with proposed specifications for UDS+. While all SC health centers have adopted patient activation tools, they have reported a need for immediate assistance with furthering patient engagement efforts through sustaining telehealth and remote patient monitoring efforts. Most health centers in the state have reported that they are connected to or are in the process of connecting to health information exchange (i.e., state or vendor agnostic exchange); however, there is still a need for optimization. Statewide, health centers have also expressed interest in enhancing the use of data and technology to support managerial and clinical quality decisions at various levels of the organization (e.g., provider, site, and entire organization) that impact operational efficiencies and improved health for the populations and communities served. Due to the rece NT increase in cybersecurity attacks our phcs have expressed a need for assistance in drafting policies and procedures around security risk mitigation. Our health centers were surveyed and we found that only six percent of their patient population of 367,428 was assessed for social risk factors. Lastly, our phcs conveyed that they would look to more training and technical assistance around equitable health IT innovations for their patient populations. Proposed services: the SCHCCN project offers the opportunity to expand upon and leverage the current work of the SCPHCA by assisting health centers with addressing existing and future health IT needs. Training and technical assistance (T/TA) offered will be based on participating health center needs and tailored to their capacity. Through the T/TA provided, SCHCCN will continue to enhance health centers' ability to access and aggregate data from various sources and resolve the challenges associated with the use of disparate tools for data collection. Efforts will be made to partner with EHR vendors to prepare our phcs for the UDS+ project. Further, the SCHCCN will work with health centers to improve capacity for data standardization, management, and analysis to support value-based care activities; improve patient engagement with their health care teams by assisting with advancement of health IT and training; and continue assisting health centers in their efforts to leverage the HIE to share information securely with other key providers and health systems. Group/population to be served: the SCHCCN will provide services to existing and future participating health center program award recipients and look-alikes in SC. To date, 18 health centers representing 191 service sites statewide have committed to engage in this important project to enhance the quality of health center services provided to health center patients.