What are Promising Practices?
Promising practices are practices that our health centers have tried and found to be successful, resulting in improvements to clinical quality outcomes, staff and provider satisfaction, and/or patient engagement. These could be new workflows or tools, internal staff education and trainings, EHR improvements, or outreach/in-reach techniques.
We are particularly interested in identifying Promising Practices related to:
- Diabetes
- Social Drivers of Health
- Staff and Provider Satisfaction and/or Retention
- Patient Engagement
- Patient Portal
- Well Child Visits and Childhood Immunizations
Since no two health centers are the same, these practices are not considered “best practices”. A practice may work at one health center, but not at another.
PROGRAM
Documented Promising Practices and Presentation Recordings
Breast Cancer Screenings
- Strategies For Improving Breast Cancer Screening Rates – Marin Community Clinics
Care Management
- CalAIM ECM Health Center Workflows and Processes CCHC – CommuniCare Health Centers
Cervical Cancer Screening
- Cervical Cancer Screening – OLE Health
- Cervical Cancer Screenings– Marin Community Clinics
- Increasing Cervical Cancer Screenings through Data Clean-up & PSDA Cycles – West County Health Centers
- Outreach and Taking Advantage of the PAP-ortunity – Alexander Valley Healthcare
- Connecting with Patients through Women’s Health Day – Ritter Center
Child Health
- Creating Consistency Through a Master Training Booklet – Sonoma Valley Community Health Center
- Child Vaccine Tracker Updated– CommuniCare Health Centers
- Enhancing ACE Screening through HMG Care Coordination – Contra Costa First 5
- Lower Than Expected Well-Child Visits in the First 15 Months Care Gap – Santa Rosa Community Health
- Well Child Visits in the first 15 months of life – Marin Community Clinics
- Well Child Visits & Child Immunization Workflows – West County Health Centers
- PHC Childhood Immunization Workflow – Petaluma Health Center
- An Integrated Approach to Well-Child Visits – West County Health Centers
- Creating a Culture of Vaccination – Marin Community Clinics
- Newborn Enrollment, Assignment and Continuity of Care -La Clinica
Colorectal Cancer Screening
- Colorectal Cancer Screening #DoThePoo – Community Medical Centers
- Colorectal Cancer Screening – Petaluma Health Center
- Colorectal Cancer Screening – Sonoma Valley Community Health Center
- Utilizing Care Coordinators Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening – OLE Health
- FIT Test Lab Packaging– Santa Rosa Community Health
- Colorectal Cancer Screening: Outreach and Bulk FIT Kit Mailing – Marin Community Clinics
Community Health Workers
Community Health Worker Integration into Clinical Care Teams – Santa Rosa Community Health
CHW Sustainability Through ACE Screen Reimbursement – Community Medical Centers
Dental
- Dental Sealants for Children Ages 6-9– Petaluma Health Center
- Integrating Dental with Primary Care to Improve Scheduling & Sealant Rates – Alexander Valley Healthcare
- Dental Assistant Trainee Program – Marin Community Clinics
Diabetes
- Nurse Case Management for Blood Pressure Control for Diabetics – Coastal Health Alliance
- Diabetes Management HbA1C – OLE Health
- Diabetes HbA1c Control – Sonoma Valley Community Health Center
- Diabetic Retinal Eye Exam Screenings – Alexander Valley Healthcare
- Prescription of GLP-1’s to Lower Insulin Use and Focus on Lifestyle – Sonoma County Indian Health Project
- Diabetes Case Manager – Alexander Valley Healthcare
- Continuous Glucose Monitoring for Uncontrolled Diabetic Patients – Sonoma Valley Community Health Center
Hypertension
- Hypertension Control – West County Health Centers
- Blood Pressure Measurement Workflow – Alliance Medical Center
- Hypertension Blood Pressure Control – Alexander Valley Healthcare
Infectious Disease
- HIV Testing Program & PrEP Management – Santa Rosa Community Health
Nutrition and Physical Activity
- Expanding Food Access & Improving Nutrition Education Through a Food Pharmacy – Marin City Health and Wellness Center
- Group Classes, Giveaways, and a Garden: Part 1 – OLE Health
- Food is Medicine – CommuniCare Health Centers
- Clinical Team Assistant (CTA) QI Rotations – Santa Rosa Community Health
Pharmacy
An Integrated Clinical Pharmacy Model – Sonoma County Indian Health Project
Quality Improvement and Panel Management
- Quality Watch Checklists – West County Health Centers
- Population Health Management– CommuniCare Health Centers
- Pop Health for QI – Marin Community Clinics
- Clinical Team Assistant (CTA) QI Rotations – Santa Rosa Community Health
- Increasing Dental & Behavioral Health Interventions for MAT Participants – Marin City Health & Wellness Center
- QI Chat Room Podcast – Aliados Health
- Promising Practice Documentation – Aliados Health
- Aliados Health Reports on Reports – Aliados Health
- Aliados Health COVID Dashboard – Aliados Health
Social Drivers of Health
- PRAPARE Workflow – Alexander Valley Healthcare
- PRAPARE Care Coordination Workflow – CommuniCare+OLE
- PRAPARE Workflow– Sonoma Valley Community Health Center
- Improving Screening Rates for Social Determinants of Health – Winters Health Care Foundation
- Access Coordinator Position – West County Health Centers
- Social Drivers of Health (Reliable Data) – Alliance Medical Center
- Bidirectional SSRL Implementation – Alliance Medical Center
- Improving PRAPARE Workflows: Staff Trainings and MyChart Integration – Petaluma Health Center
Team Based Care
- Optimizing Care Team Roles for PHASE – Sonoma County Indian Health Project
- Preventive Care Coordinator Position – CommuniCare Health Centers
- Wiki Site – Petaluma Health Center
- Teamlet Model for Improving HTN and HbA1c Levels – Coastal Health Alliance
Technology and Operations
- Better Communication for Better Care (Video Translation Services – Alliance Medical Center
- Increasing Telehealth Engagement – CommuniCare Health Centers
- Lessons from Patient Portals – Humboldt IPA, Petaluma Health Center, and West County Health Centers
- Patient Engagement Through Text Messages – Long Valley Health Center
- Shared Specialty Telehealth Model– Anderson Valley & Long Valley Health Centers
- Transporting Patients with Hitch Health – West County Health Centers
- Virtual Clinic Promising Practice – West County Health Centers
- Managed Medi-Cal Data Tracking – Aliados Health HCCN
- Outreach Platform NexHealth – Long Valley Health Center
- Relevant Bi-Directional Outreach: FIT Kits – Santa Rosa Community Health
Tobacco and BMI Screenings
- CDSS for Tobacco Screening – Santa Rosa Community Health
- BMI Screening and Documentation– Petaluma Health Center
- Adult BMI Screening and Follow-up – Sonoma Valley Community Health Centers
- EHR Integration for BMI Follow-Up Documentation – OLE Health
4Ms
Do you have a promising practice to share with your peers?
Maybe you implemented a new workflow or a new tool and the change resulted in improvements to clinical quality outcomes, staff and provider satisfaction, or patient engagement. Aliados Health is ready to interview your team and document what you learned so it can be shared with other community health centers (CHC)! Promising practice templates for each Aliados Health health center are available here. Health centers can complete their template on their own, or Aliados Health can do it for them. More details on the process of documenting a promising practice can be found in the infographic below.
How does this work?
Aliados Health staff will interview you about your Promising Practice and document your project in our standard template. You will have the opportunity to review and provide feedback on the promising practice before it is shared via our newsletter, website, and peer groups. We also encourage you to present your Promising Practice at one of our QI Chat Room sessions. The schedule can be found here. If others pilot test your promising practice, we’ll ask them to share their results with us!
Have you tested or applied an existing Promising Practice at your health center?
Aliados Health wants to learn about your work! Tell us about your experience, the project you tested, and any outcomes you can share about what was successful and what didn’t work. Aliados Health will document your response in our new Building the Evidence Base Template that will be appended to the relevant Promising Practice. We’re particularly interested in learning how Promising Practice outcomes may be influenced when implemented at a large or small health center, with a different population, or with a different EHR.
Want to implement a Promising Practice but aren’t sure where to start?
Let Aliados Health know what topic you’d like assistance with (e.g. childhood immunizations), and Aliados Health will give you a recommendation using our Bridge to Promising Practices. We will search our list of documented promising practices, find one that fits, and customize the recommendation to your health center.
Who We Serve
We serve 19 health centers and one wellness education site throughout Northern California.
Funders
This project was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $1.5 million. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.
Project Timeline
August 1, 2019 – July 31, 2022
PROJECT PARTNERS
Health Center & Wellness Center Partners:
- Alexander Valley Healthcare
- Alliance Medical Center
- Anderson Valley Health Center
- CommuniCare Health Centers
- Community Medical Center
- Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley
- Jewish Community Free Clinic
- La Clinica
- LifeLong Medical Care
- Long Valley Health Center
- Marin City Health and Wellness
- Marin Community Clinics
- OLE Health
- Petaluma Health Center
- Ritter Center
- Santa Rosa Community Health
- Shasta Cascade
- Shasta Community Health Center
- Sonoma County Indian Health Project
- Sonoma Valley Community Health Centers
- West County Health Centers
- Western Sierra Medical Clinic
- Winters Healthcare Foundation
Strategic Partners:
- Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
PROJECT CONTACT
For more information, please contact Arlene Peña