Starting point: Mutual appreciation and recognition of excellence among leading Federally Qualified Community Health Centers
Organizing strategy: Regular, bi-annual gatherings to exchange best practices
Tools: Site visits, informal informational exchange
Outcomes: Raising the bar of performance, and setting examples of collaboration that benefits patients
Primary Resources: http://www.bestpracticesllc.org/bp/
Community Health Best Practices, LLC is a nonprofit network comprised of fourteen of the nation’s leading community health centers. Our Members operate federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Hawaii, Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts, and they provide comprehensive primary care and behavioral health services to all patients regardless of the patients’ ability to pay for such services. In 2012, our Member’s health centers had 4.6 million patient visits nationwide, a large percentage of which involved uninsured or underinsured patients.
Community Health Best Practices, LLC was formed for the purpose of supporting the nonprofit and community-focused missions of our Member organizations. The LLC carries out this purpose by:
- Procuring grant funds and donations to further the nonprofit missions of the LLC’s member health centers;
- Developing and implementing collaborative purchasing programs designed to leverage the combined size and purchasing power of the LLC’s Members in order to obtain favorable product and service pricing; and
- Seeking support for educational programs and activities designed to perpetuate evidence-based operational and clinical “best practices” within our Member’s health centers.
Community Health Best Practices, LLC is a health center controlled network (HCCN) actively pursuing opportunities to develop a health information technology platform that will enable our health centers to optimize health outcomes for their patients while simultaneously enhancing our Members’ ability to control costs and enhance operational efficiency.
About The Best Practices Forum
Community Health Best Practices, LLC exists today because of the collaborations and partnerships developed through the Best Practices Forum. For over a decade, the executive and clinical leaders of some of the nation’s leading community health centers have come together (at least annually) for purposes of sharing with each other their own health center’s “best practices” in areas such as:
Clinical quality improvement
Development and enhancement of human resources
- Leadership excellence
- Use of advanced metrics to improve health outcomes
- Implementation and use of business intelligence software
- Application of LEAN principles in community health care
- Accountable care and payment reform
- Health care facility management
- Telehealth and Telepharmacy
- Social media and health care marketing
- Advanced concepts in implementation of patient centered medical homes
EXEMPLARS 