HomeMy WebLinkAboutaugust-2020-chr-user-newsletter-archiveCommunity Health Record (CHR) Newsletter
August 2020
Dear CHR Users, Super Users, and Supervisors,
Welcome to our August CHR User newsletter! Here you’ll find updates on Alameda County
Care Connect’s (AC Care Connect’s) work to improve, enhance, and increase the use of the
CHR including information on:
the value the CHR brings to whole person care
new features / enhancements and other updates
answers to frequently asked questions
upcoming enhancements
opportunities to develop your skills and
up-to-date CHR usage stats including the top three organizations using the CHR
Each month we bring you news you can use to discuss the CHR within your organizations.
We hope you found last month’s issue informative. If you are new to our mailing list and
didn’t receive the July issue, you can find it here.
Impact Story: How does the CHR support whole person care?
CHR users often share stories with us about how the Community Health Record (CHR)
supports them in coordinating care and improving consumers’ health outcomes. This
month’s story was reported by a provider at Safer Ground Oakland, one of the county’s
isolation housing hotels for Alameda County residents who are homeless and at high risk of
being infected with COVID-19.
“Being able to see emergency room (ER) visits and primary care provider (PCP) information
has been immensely helpful. A month ago, we had a hotel guest who had chronic kidney
disease. They were overdue for dialysis, having missed their prior appointment before
coming to stay at Safer Ground. Guests are able to leave the premises of the hotel during
the day, and this guest was nowhere to be seen on-site. Using the CHR we were able to see
that he had presented to the ER and was receiving care. It was a huge relief to know that he
was safe.”
University of California San Francisco (UCSF) nurse providing care at Safer Ground Oakland
Click here to learn more about whole person care.
What's New?
Highlights of recent changes and enhancements to the CHR include:
Santa Rita jail data is now viewable in the CHR: Limited publicly available jail census data—
information on jail stays and releases—is now accessible in the CHR’s Analytics feature. You
will only be able to see this information for consumers who are attributed to your
organization. This data can be very helpful in finding consumers who are lost-to-care and
also in better coordinating care for both consumers who are incarcerated and those who
are being released from jail.
Please note: We are working to match consumers’ records coming from the jail with records
from other sources in the Social Health Information Exchange (SHIE). Because of this,
initially all consumers in your panel who are in jail or being released may not show in your
report or alerts. This matching will improve over time.
CHR User Survey: We are conducting a survey of CHR users to learn about use of the CHR
and the Helpdesk, and what improvements and/or enhancements are needed. Please check
your email for a survey invitation from Rey Vizcarra, AC Care Connect’s Helpdesk Manager.
Your feedback will be anonymous. Stay tuned for an update in an upcoming CHR user
newsletter where we’ll share summary level findings and discuss the steps we plan to take
to address the feedback.
Partner Update newsletter: We recently relaunched our Partner Update newsletter, which
features news on the Social Health Information Exchange (SHIE) and the CHR. Recipients
are leaders and decision-makers in our partner organizations. Click here for the July issue,
which features highlights from AC Care Connect’s dashboard of outcome metrics and on our
impact in getting homeless consumers housed.
COVID-19 Resources: You can find up-to-date resources on COVID-19 here and here.
Tips & Tricks
We have many helpful resources to make the CHR easier to use and navigate. New tip
sheets and other resources are posted on Elemeno on an ongoing basis. (See below for
information on Elemeno.)
Recent additions include:
Information Sharing Authorization (ISA) resources: You’ll find new ISA resources on
Elemeno including a Quick Guide on Tips to Ensure ISAs are Valid, a guide on Collecting ISAs
during the COVID-19 Emergency, and a recording of a recent webinar on this topic.
First Time Login Instructions: Having trouble logging in to the CHR? Click here for a Tip
Sheet.
New to Elemeno? Elemeno is an online platform containing tip-sheets, guides, videos, and
other resources for the CHR, and also for services related to Care Management, Health
Plans, Housing, Mental Health, Primary Care, and Substance Use Disorder Treatment.
Please use the self-registration feature by clicking “First time? Create an Account” and
entering your organization email here.
What's Next?
We continue to evolve and enhance the CHR. Here’s what we’re currently working
on:
100 Day Challenge to Fight Homelessness: This effort, which began at the end of
June, has a goal of developing viable housing plans by end of September for at least
400 consumers currently residing in Alameda County’s Project Roomkey COVID-19
isolation and quarantine hotels for persons experiencing homelessness. AC Care
Connect is collaborating closely with our partners who are operating within the
hotels including Abode Services and Building Futures. As of August 11, 40 days into
the Challenge, 125 guests had viable housing plans in place.
100 & Beyond: On August 17 AC Care Connect kicked off a four-month collaborative
initiative for Safer Ground hotel staff to support the 100 Day Challenge and to
ensure this work will be sustained for the long term. The purpose is to strengthen
processes and build staff capacity to effectively develop successful housing plans. A
Fact Sheet with details on 100 & Beyond is found here.
Improving the CHR user interface: In July we continued our work with our CHR
vendor, Thrasys, to design improvements that will further curate the most critical
pieces of information on a face sheet or summary page in the CHR and then provide
intuitive access to more detail when the CHR user needs it. Thank you to all the CHR
users who participated in one of several feedback sessions to refine the design. We
heard you and will share more details soon.
Wave 4 onboarding: CHR participants for Wave 4, spanning July - September, have
been finalized. Participants include:
New programs from Abode, ACBH, AHS, BACH, Bonita House, Cherry Hill,
HCSA (EMS), and Lifelong
New organizations: Asian Health Services, La Clinica, Building Futures (COVID-
19 hotel operator staff)
UCSF & Samuel Merritt nursing groups that staff the COVID-19 hotels
The CHR user onboarding team is conducting Workflow and Readiness Assessments
and CHR user training for these organizations.
Wave 5: Planning is underway for Wave 5, which will span October – December. We
are currently reaching out to new organizations to execute Data Sharing Agreements.
The CHR user onboarding team is assessing organizational capacity based on size of
the program teams that are interested in participating.
Upcoming Training and Resources
We offer many ways to learn more about the CHR and get your questions answered
including:
CHR Refresher Training, September 14, 1 - 3 pm: This two-hour training is for CHR users
who have attended a CHR training and need a refresher. We will review the primary
components of the data privacy framework (including attribution and what data you can
see with and without an ISA), and provide a quick demo of key "impact moves" in the CHR.
This session will be participatory in nature, so come ready to "play" in the CHR!
Register here.
If you need help logging in before this session, please contact the Helpdesk at
CareConnectHelp@acgov.org or (510) 618-1997. Click here for a Tip Sheet.
CHR Make-up Session, September 23, 1 - 4 pm: This three-hour training is intended for CHR
users who have never been trained and are staff of a program previously onboarded. This
session will not include onboarding new programs to the CHR. In this session participants
will learn:
What data is shared in the CHR and how this information applies to you
The nine primary functions you can use within the CHR to coordinate care for
consumers you work with
How to access the CHR when you are at your organization
After completing the training, new users will receive their CHR username and password,
and will be able to access the CHR. Register here.
Elbow Support sessions: These are opportunities for one person or small groups/teams of
current CHR users to access additional support and training. Tailored to your needs, these
virtual sessions may cover a variety of topics including troubleshooting login issues,
guidance on building dynamic lists, instructions on how to add yourself to a consumer's
Care Team, how to configure external alerts, and how to integrate the CHR into your
workflow processes. Click here to complete the form to schedule a session.
The next virtual “Elbow Support Office Hour” is scheduled for September 16 from 11 am -
12 pm. This is for trained CHR users. No registration is required and you may drop in at any
time during the zoom session by clicking here.
Onboarding new programs to the CHR: Click here to sign-up to onboard new programs to
the CHR.
Recordings of past webinars are available here. Topics include Review of Impact Moves,
Information Sharing Authorization, Housing Tab Review, and Using the CHR for Your COVID-
19 Response.
Are you a CHR Super User? Join us! A Super User is the “go-to” person within your
organization who provides AC Care Connect with recommendations on how to improve the
CHR and make it easier to use and more effective for your organization’s needs. Our Super
User Workgroup meets the 1st Tuesday of each month from 2:30 - 4:00 pm. The next
meeting is Tuesday, September 1. To learn more, email Carla Justice at
cjustice@pcgus.org.
Data Corner
CHR usage continues to increase. As of the beginning of August:
596 persons (a 4% increase since the end of June) have now been trained as
CHR users and have CHR user accounts. Of these, 542 users (91%) have logged
into the CHR since its launch.
In July a total of 29 new CHR users were trained.
Trainings have been conducted for CHR users in a total of 25
organizations/programs.
The top three organizations using the CHR, based on both the number of
users trained and the number who have logged in are:
BACS: 102 trained; 78 logged in
ACBH: 89 trained; 53 logged in
Lifelong: 58 trained; 55 logged in
Questions?
Contact the AC Care Connect Help Desk at:
CareConnectHelp@acgov.org or (510) 618-1997
AC Care Connect Steering Committee Members
Aaron Chapman, Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services | Kathleen Clanon, M.D., Alameda County Care Connect | Scott Coffin,
Alameda Alliance for Health | Lori Cox, Alameda County Social Services Agency | Elaine de Coligny, Everyone Home | Delvecchio Finley,
Alameda Health System | Colleen Chawla, Health Care Services Agency | Beau Hennemann, Anthem | John Jones III, East Oakland Black
Cultural Zone and Just Cities | Karl Sporer, M.D., Alameda County Emergency Medical Services | Wendy Peterson, Senior Services
Coalition | Ralph Silber, Alameda Health Consortium | Wendy Still, Alameda County Probation | Suzanne Warner, Housing and
Community Development
www.accareconnect.org