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Background Information
Program Sponsors
Goals
Content Areas of Focus
Collaborative Structure
National Organization
State and Regional Organization
State and Regional HDC Contacts
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Program Sponsors
In 1999 the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC), in collaboration with health centers, freestanding National Health Service Corps (NHSC) sites, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and public and private agencies, launched an aggressive, innovative program, the Health Disparities Collaboratives, to address growing health disparities and a changing market place.
The Health Disparities Collaboratives program is part of an initiative developed by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Bureau of Primary Health Care.
Goals
The goals are to eliminate the health disparities in our nation and to ensure access to quality primary care for racial and ethnic minorities and other underserved populations. In accordance with this goal, the initial aim of the Collaboratives is to:
- Decrease or delay the complications of chronic disease
- Decrease the economic burden for patients and the community
- Improve access to quality chronic disease care for underserved populations.
Although participant organizations will pursue goals matched to local needs, all participants in the Collaboratives will work to accomplish national goals.
Content Areas of Focus
Since 1999, hundreds of community health centers have participated in Collaboratives focusing on improving care for specific chronic conditions. Using a Care Model that specifies the essential elements of excellent care, these health centers have achieved impressive results. On the strength of their initial success in improving diabetes care, health centers have expanded the changes in practice to additional sites and additional topics, including preventive services, asthma, depression, cardiovascular disease, cancer and HIV/AIDS.
In 2004 the Health Disparities Collaboratives completed small-scale prototype Collaboratives in cancer, prevention, and diabetes prevention. Planned prototypes include perinatal/risk management and substance abuse. The objective of prototype collaboratives is to determine, with a small number of high performers from previous collaboratives, how the subject matter lends itself to the Collaborative approach in community health centers. At the end of each prototype, teams will have worked with the faculty to develop the change package (change concepts in each component of the Chronic Care Model that will lead to improvement in outcomes) that will be utilized in a subsequent, formal BPHC-sponsored Collaborative.
National Organization
The Collaborative is guided at the national level by an Expert Panel comprised of individuals experienced in the Collaborative content area (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, etc.), health center operations, process improvement/redesign and evaluation strategies.
State and Regional Organization
State Primary Care Associations (PCAs) provide oversight and management of the Collaborative infrastructure through the PCA State Coordinators. Face-to-face meetings, continued training, technical support around sustaining and spreading the Chronic Care Model or the Optimizing Clinical Care Model, and networking with state, regional and national partners is the responsibility of the state coordinators within each state PCA.
The state-based infrastructure was directly funded for the first time in April 2007, moving much of what the five national "clusters" lead PCAs used to provide to the state level. The cluster still exists, and Region VIII remains a part of the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) West Central Cluster (WCC) which consists of Region VI (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) and Region VIII (Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming). The lead PCA for the West Central Cluster (WCC) is the Texas Association of Community Health Centers (TACHC).
TACHC's current role is to support the building of quality infrastructure in the states and to coordinate with the PCA State Coordinators on quality improvement efforts. TACHC will conduct or arrange for the training of new teams in the Optimizing Clinical Care Collaborative. The WCC Collaboratives Steering Committee advises TACHC on Collaborative activities.
State and Regional HDC Contacts
Please feel free to contact any of the individuals found on these lists for more information about the Health Disparities Collaboratives.
COLORADO
Jessica Sanchez, MSN, FNP
Colorado Community Health Network, Denver, CO
Ph: (303) 861-5165 ext. 231
Fx: (303) 861-5315
E-mail: jessica@cchn.org
MONTANA
Paula Block, RN, BSN
Montana Primary Care Association, Helena, MT
Ph: (406) 442-2750
Fx: (406) 449-2460
E-mail: pblock@mtpca.org
NORTH AND SOUTH DAKOTA
Ann Skoglund
Community HealthCare Association of the Dakotas, Sioux Falls, SD
Ph: (605) 357-1515
Fx: (605) 357-1509
E-mail: askoglund@communityhealthcare.net
UTAH
Kimberly S. Mueller, MSPH
Association for Utah Community Health, Salt Lake City, UT
Ph: (801) 974-5522
Fx: (801) 974-5563
E-mail: ccc@auch.org
WYOMING
Donna Anderson
Wyoming Primary Care Association, Cheyenne, WY
Ph: (307) 632-5743
Fx: (307) 638-6103
E-mail: donna@wypca.org
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