The NACHC Policy and Issues forum occurred March 16-19 in Washington DC. I joined two of our Board members, Margaret Flinter and Craig Kennedy, as well as several CHC staff including Kerry Bamrick, Veena Channamsetty, Kevin Massey, Daren Anderson, Agi Erickson and Patti Feeney. Hundreds of people stopped by CHC’s Weitzman Institute exhibit to learn more about their research and QI programs, and to hear about NNPRFTC’s accreditation activities. Session highlights of the P & I forum included:
- Implications of the 2016 Presidential election on the political environment in Congress and in the states.
- Working toward payment reform.
- Successful use of data analytics for policy and payment.
- 340B drug discount policy changes and their impact on health centers.
- Population health and transforming healthcare delivery.
- Attaining clinical and financial integration in an accountable care world.
- Advocacy and showcasing the health center value message in an election season.
I’ve been attending an interesting and useful series of free, weekly Clinical Workforce Development webinars. The webinar series is funded through a HRSA National Cooperative Agreement (NCA) awarded to CHC, Inc. There are three tracks: Implementing postgraduate nurse practitioner and clinical psychology residencies; Advancing team-based care; and Health professions students in FQHCs. The webinars are delivered via web-based video meeting technology (Zoom). Each 1-hour interactive webinar presents a panel of nationally recognized individuals who work in FQHCs. They share and discuss best practices in training the next generation and team-based care. Their slides and webinar recordings are posted on the website www.chc1.com/nca . The goal is to foster the creation of a workforce of clinically expert, deeply committed staff, representing all roles and disciplines in primary care, that are trained to a high performance model of team-based care. For more information and to register for one or more webinars, go to Clinical Workforce Development at www.chc1.com/nca : Training teams, training the next generation.
This week I attended the spring meeting of the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors. When I arrived in Chicago it was 72 and sunny. The next day it was 28 and snowing! The variability in temperature was the perfect segue to the focus of the conference: consistency and fairness in accreditation. Excellent presentations and panels offered in-depth discussions on:
- reducing bias and ensuring consistency in accreditation reviews, while recognizing the distinct nature of each training program;
- working with teams, review committees, and boards to establish fair and reproducible outcomes, including such techniques as inter-rater reliability;
- using decision-making processes, such as calibration, to have fair and reliable outcomes;
- establishing risk prevention practices.
Basically, we talked about how to foster a culture of feedback that ensures due diligence.
Next time, watch for information about our new membership program, our new logo, and site visitor training.
