HomeMy WebLinkAboutchr-user-newsletter-10-2020-archiveCommunity Health Record (CHR) User Newsletter
October 2020
Dear CHR Users, Super Users, and Supervisors,
Welcome to our October CHR User newsletter. This month’s newsletter brings you updates
on improvements and enhancements that increase the CHR’s value to your work, along with
benefits for consumer care and links to useful resources. Topics include:
The value the CHR brings to whole person care,
New features / enhancements and other updates,
Upcoming enhancements,
Answers to frequently asked questions,
Opportunities to develop your skills,
Organizations with the most CHR users trained; and
CHR usage stats.
If you are new to our mailing list and didn’t receive the September issue, you can find it
here. We hope you find these updates helpful to your work and we appreciate your
readership. You can also subscribe using the button at the bottom of this issue.
Top Three Organizations
As of October 12, the organizations with the most CHR users trained were:
Bay Area Community Services: 108 users
Alameda County Behavioral Health: 108 users
LifeLong Medical Care: 64 users
Stories of Impact: How does the CHR support whole person care?
This month’s story was shared by Alexis Chettiar, PhD, ACNP-BC, Co-Interim Medical
Director, Project Roomkey, Alameda County. Project Roomkey hotels serve vulnerable
consumers who are experiencing homelessness and are high risk for contracting COVID-19.
AC Care Connect’s Data Exchange Unit (DEU) team is training hotel registered nurses (RNs)
to use the CHR to improve care for hotel guests.
As Dr. Chettiar shared, RNs use the CHR tool to improve the stability of medical care the
guests receive, to improve their overall well-being and set them up for success when they
leave the hotels. Using the CHR to assess benefit status and eligibility helps RNs enroll
guests in Medi-Cal to connect them with primary care providers, establish a medical home,
and access wrap-around services. RNs also help guests complete the Information Sharing
Authorization (ISA) form to give providers a better view of health status and need for
additional services. For instance, the diagnostic information in the CHR helps RNs identify
guests who have diabetes or hypertension and connect them with services to improve
disease management. The RNs are also trained to document critical information in the
CHR’s Shared Care Plan to support care coordination and housing placement as well as
identify need for legal or social services.
“In the past, we’d have to dig through backpacks to find scraps of paper that might have
information on where an individual received medical care or any conditions they might
have,” said Dr. Chettiar. “Having access to the CHR is like turning on a lightbulb—you can
see so much about the person’s conditions and use of services which helps ensure they will
be connected to health care in the community when they leave the hotel.” Dr. Chettiar also
commented on the various enhancements and customization that AC Care Connect has
implemented in response to feedback from the RNs: “Being able to make adjustments, even
if at the edges, to accommodate needs has made a critical difference in the utility of the
tool.”
We welcome your CHR success stories! Please contact our Helpdesk
at CareConnectHelp@acgov.org or (510) 618-1997 to share your story.
What's New?
CHR survey update: next steps. Thanks to the responses of all who participated in our CHR
user survey, we learned a lot about how the CHR is used and how it might be further
improved. A key finding was that some organizations and programs need more support
using the CHR. To address these needs we are:
Restructuring the Super User Workgroup starting in January 2021 to include more
advanced training topics: Analytics, Using Lists for Panel Management, Data Sharing
Best Practices, Alert Configuration, New User Setup, and more! Email Carla Justice at
cjustice@pcgus.com to receive an invite to join the CHR Super User Workgroup.
Creating user-friendly videos that review the login and setup processes.
Expanding the capacity of the Helpdesk and Super Users to include basic technical
support.
Expanding current CHR user support to include quick reference guides that explain
how to use various features of the CHR.
Developing case studies and capturing impact stories that illustrate ways the CHR is
used to support whole person care.
Drawing on input provided by CHR users, we are making enhancements to the user
interface as mentioned in prior CHR User newsletters. We expect to complete the first
round of changes by early 2021. See the September CHR User newsletter for a summary of
the survey findings. We also plan to conduct quarterly surveys to monitor the impact of
these and other enhancements and to capture feedback for ongoing improvements.
In addition to the improvements listed above, we made the following enhancements in
September:
Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) data is now in the CHR.
Easier upload of the ISA: Users can now attach multiple / additional documents when
updating the ISA and uploading it to the CHR.
FEMA shelter reports now include consumers’ inpatient and emergency department
(ED) visits. This information is found in the “latest visit column” which includes visit
type, admit/discharge dates, and facility.
Santa Rita jail data updates. Two new reports are available in the CHR: 1) jail census
report, a listing of all consumers currently incarcerated and 2) a listing of
incarcerations for each consumer (if applicable). This data is refreshed hourly.
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 also Upcoming
Trainings and Resources below.) Some recent additions are listed below; click on the name
of the resource to access it.
Desktop references:
CHR Desktop Reference
Add yourself to a consumer’s Care Team
Edit Shared Care Plan
Impact Moves
Reset Password
Self-Attribution
Subscribe to/Create Lists
Upload Documents
Upload an ISA
Housing Alerts & Reports
Videos/Webinars:
Using The CHR For Care Coordination
Housing Problem-Solving Overview
Motivational Interviewing
What's Next?
We continue to evolve and enhance the CHR. Here’s what we’re currently working on:
Demand for CHR training continues to grow. In our training Waves we teach staff from
programs and organizations spanning a variety of sectors that are involved in providing care
to enrolled consumers.
Wave 5 launched! Spanning October through December, participants in Wave 5
include Building Futures’ hotel staff*, AC Care Connect’s Eastmont Collaborative at
Alameda Health System’s Eastmont Wellness Center, Roots Community Clinic*,
Integrated Behavioral Health Programs from CHCN clinics*, and several substance
use disorder (SUD) and mental health partner programs*. (Note: Those with an “*”
are programs/organizations that are new to the CHR.)
Wave 6 planning is underway. Wave 6 will launch in early 2021. We are working with
organizations/ programs to get their Data Sharing Agreements (DSAs) signed.
AC Care Connect staff to present at the Camden Coalition’s Putting Care at the Center
annual conference. Two AC Care Connect teams have been selected to host virtual
exhibition tables at the conference:
Jennifer Martinez, AC Care Connect Program Development Director, will present
“Building a Social Health Information Exchange.” Cristi Iannuzzi, Director of Strategy
and Implementation of AC Care Connect’s Data Exchange Unit, and Keira Armstrong,
Senior Consultant for Health Care Improvement with Intrepid Ascent, will co-present.
Bridget Satchwell, AC Care Connect System Outreach Manager, and Itta Johnson,
Quality Improvement Unit lead and Director of Operations with external consulting
firm Public Consulting Group will present “Care Communities.”
Upcoming Training and Resources
We offer many ways to learn about the CHR and get your questions answered. These are
tailored to your needs.
Already attended a training but need a refresher? This training is for you! This two-hour
participatory session for current CHR users covers primary components of the data privacy
framework and includes a demo of key "impact moves" in the CHR.
Monday, October 19, 1 - 3pm; register here.
Friday, November 13, 1 - 3 pm; register here.
Need quick support? Stop by our Elbow Support Office Hour for trained CHR users. No
registration is required and you may drop in at any time during the zoom session. Office
hours are the third Wednesday of each month from 11 am - 12 pm. The next two sessions
are October 21 and November 18. Click here to join the zoom session.
Need additional support? Elbow Support sessions are opportunities for one person or small
groups/teams of current CHR users to access additional support and training. Click here to
schedule a session.
Missed a training? Attend a CHR make-up training for CHR users who have never been
trained and are staff of a program previously onboarded. After completing the training,
attendees receive their CHR username and password and are able to access the CHR.
Wednesday, November 18, 1 - 4 pm: register here.
New to the CHR? Click here to sign-up to onboard new programs to the CHR.
Missed a webinar? Recordings of past webinars are available here.
Have ideas for webinars? Do you have a topic you would like us to review at an upcoming
webinar? Send your ideas to careconnecthelp@acgov.org
New to Elemeno? Elemeno is an online platform containing tip-sheets, guides, videos, and
other resources for the CHR and for services related to Care Management, Health Plans,
Housing, Mental Health, Primary Care, and Substance Use Disorder Treatment. Use the self-
registration feature by clicking “First time? Create an Account” and entering your
organization email here.
Data Corner
CHR User training statistics:
687 persons have been trained as CHR users and have CHR user accounts.
33 new CHR users were trained in September.
To date, we have conducted trainings for CHR users in a total of 26
organizations/programs.
Questions?
Contact the AC Care Connect Help Desk at:
CareConnectHelp@acgov.org or (510) 618-1997
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Visit our website
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