Shaping the Future of Primary Care: CHC Launches National Clinical Workforce Development Initiative

Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC) is launching a ground-breaking initiative advancing the training of the next generation of primary care providers, as well as focusing on implementing and improving team-based primary care at health centers nationally. A recognized leader in primary care delivery and the team-based care model, CHC will utilize state-of-the-art tools to engage health centers across the country through interactive training sessions, learning collaboratives and web-based resources.

The program is funded by a one-million dollar award from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) National Training and Technical Assistance Cooperative Agreement (NCA) focused on Clinical Workforce Development. CHC received the only award conferred by HRSA for workforce development, and over the next two years will provide technical assistance and guidance to more than 1,000 health centers across the U.S. at no cost to participants.

“There is a great deal of interest and excitement as we launch this comprehensive program designed to build an expert workforce prepared to implement a high performance model of primary care,” said Margaret Flinter, PhD, APRN, Senior VP/Clinical Director of CHC. “As a leader in health professional training and interprofessional collaboration, CHC is positioned to guide health centers in accelerating the training of the next generation of healthcare professionals as well as innovations in team-based care.”

In all, more than 20 general webinars, followed by a series of intensive months-long learning collaboratives in which health centers actually implement new programs, will be conducted throughout 2016-17. Examples of webinar topics on workforce development include: Why Start a Post-Graduate Residency Program; Structure, Design and Content: The 12 Month Experience of a Nurse Practitioner Residency Program; Measuring the Outcomes: Research and Evaluation; and Accreditation for Post-Graduate Residency Programs. Advancing team-based care webinars will address: Building a Primary Care Team; Data-driven Dashboards; A Team Approach to Prevention and Chronic Illness Management; and Achieving Full Integration of Behavioral Health and Primary Care.

CHC’s Weitzman Institute, dedicated to inspiring primary care innovation for the underserved through research, training and consulting, will help participants adopt many of its innovative and successful learning programs. These include linking primary care providers with expert specialists through Project ECHO™ (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) videoconferencing consultative sessions, developing interprofessional learning collaboratives among participating health centers, and utilizing the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI’s) Breakthrough Series Collaborative - a collaborative learning model used for training healthcare personnel to improve quality in their organizations.

Interactive sessions conducted through “Zoom” technology begin on January 27. For more information and to participate, please contact nca@chc1.com.

Eliza Cole
(860) 347-6971 ext 3080
leslie@chc1.com

About Community Health Center, Inc. 
Since 1972, Community Health Center, Inc. has been one of the leading healthcare providers in the state of Connecticut, building a world-class primary healthcare system committed to caring for uninsured and underinsured populations. CHC is focused on improving health outcomes for its more than 130,000 patients as well as building healthy communities. Recognized as both a Level 3 Patient-Centered Medical Home by the National Committee for Quality Assurance and a Primary Care Medical Home by The Joint Commission, CHC delivers service in 201 locations statewide, offering primary care in medicine, dentistry and behavioral health services. For more information, visit www.chc1.com.

About The Weitzman Institute
The Weitzman Institute was established in 2013 by the Community Health Center, Inc., and is named in honor of Jerry Weitzman, a community pharmacist, one of CHC’s founders, and a long-time board member. Located in Middletown, CT, the Center promotes innovations in quality improvement techniques as well as critical investigation in primary care and systems redesign. Research and improvement work at the institute are focused on areas that have direct implications on the day to day practice of primary care for medically underserved patients. For more information, visit www.weitzmaninstitute.org. 

Tags: