Health Center Controlled Network

The Louisiana Health Center Controlled Network (HCCN) is a HRSA-funded initiative focused on quality improvement in health care through the adoption of health information technology (HIT). The focus of the network is to support health centers in leveraging health information technology and data to deliver high-quality, and comprehensive primary health care, with a specific focus on improvements in:

Clinical Quality,
Patient-Centered care, and
Provider and staff well-being.

The Louisiana HCCN is administered by the Louisiana Primary Care Association. The LPCA was awarded an HRSA grant in late 2012 and started with 18 FQHCs across Louisiana, focusing on diabetes and cardiovascular disease. For the current project cycle, 2022-2025, the network has grown to a strong total of 33 participating health centers with a focus on leveraging health IT to improve access to care, enhance the quality of care, and achieve cost efficiencies through the redesign of practices to integrate services and optimize patient outcomes.

This project will focus on providing training and technical assistance (T/TA) opportunities to Participating Health Centers (PHCs) to meet HRSA-set core objectives in 10 areas:

Objectives	Objective Description
Obj. 1 - Patient Engagement	Increase support in patients and families' participation in their health care through expanded use of integrate digital health tools (e.g., electronic messages through patient portals to providers, telehealth visits, RPM)
Obj. 2 - Patient Privacy & Cybersecurity	Increase formally defined HIT policies and practices that advance security to protect individual privacy and organizational access
Obj. 3 - Social Risk Factor Intervention	Increase use of patient-level data on risk factors to support patient care plans for coordinated effective interventions
Obj. 4 - Disaggregated, Patient-Level Data	Increase systems and staff aligned with submitted disaggregated, patient level data via UDS+
Obj. 5 - Interoperable Data Exchange & Integration	Increase the capacity to integrate clinical information with data from clinical and non-clinical sources across the health care continuum (e.g., hospitals, specialty providers, departments of health, HIE, care coordinators, social service/housing organizations) to optimize care coordination and workflows
Obj. 6 - Data Utilization	Increase the use of data strategies such as predictive analytics with data visualization to support performance improvement and value-based care activities
Obj. 7 - Leveraging Digital Health Tools	Increase support to providers and staff in achieving and maintaining proficiency in the use of digital health tools (e.g., telehealth and RPM tools)
Obj. 8 - HIT Usability & Adoption	Increase improvement of HIT usability and adoption by providers, staff, and patients (e.g., align with EHRs with clinical workflows, improved structured data capture in and/or outside of EHRs, use of metadata to improve EHR user experience)
Obj. 9 - Non-Medical Factors	Increase the use of LPCA Assist (FindHelp) and RPM solutions to address non-medical factors affecting patient health
Obj. 10 - Improving Digital Health Tools	Increase and enhance the quality and coordination of health services through the use of digital health tools to foster higher functioning care teams and improve patient health outcomes

HCCN PHC Member Survey Results:

The Network Offers:

Direct one-on-one technical assistance
Two in-person learning sessions per year
Topical technical assistance webinars
Peer-to-peer learning and exchange
Patient portal trainings
Remote patient monitoring opportunities
Security audit assessments with breach mitigation and response planning
Telehealth service advancements

Examples of Technical Assistance Include:

EHR reporting and documentation to facilitate electronic UDS Reporting and user group webinars
EHR optimization to assure data is captured in structured fields
In-depth analysis of the annual HRSA Quality Improvement Awards - complete with individual health center reports
HIPPA and Risk Management Training
HIT security webinar series
Data connectivity to other population-based programs/entities
PRAPARE webinars for implementation at health centers
Quality improvement and management best practices and tools

Successes Reported by HCCN Members:

LA HCCN (49.4%) surpasses the national average (42.8%) for childhood immunizations
LA HCCN membership more than doubled over the past 6 years
In house data analytics expertise to assist with data analysis to help with grant opportunities
(2) Certified NCQA experts in-house
Successful implementation of the Azara DRVS tool in over 20 participating health centers
Supporting financially (and with in-house expertise) the implementation of several add-on DRVS modules, including: Referral Module, FOT/FIT Module, Controlled Substance Module