Innovation Reports
The Association's innovation reports aim to support community health centers (CHCs) in leading innovation by identifying successful promising practices and sharing them with the statewide network. Does your CHC have a promising practice to share? Let us know!
Community Health Center of Snohomish County: Ensuring Vaccine Access at School-Based Health Centers
Right from the start, Community Health Center of Snohomish County’s (CHC) school-based health centers were rooted in a strong partnership with the Edmonds School District. The school district understood that bringing vaccine and health services to their students is efficient and effective.
North Olympic Healthcare Network: Improving Blood Pressure with Team Based Care
In 2023, North Olympic Healthcare Network (NOHN) initially launched a Self-Measured Blood Pressure program in July of 2023, aiming to improve control rates by leveraging community health workers (CHWs). The American Heart Association trained NOHN CHWs on hypertension and the SMBP model.
Community Health Care of Central Washington: Primary Care Behavioral Health Model in Practice
While the model itself is not unique to Community Health of Central Washington, the success of its application offers useful insights for health centers seeking to deepen integration and improve care delivery with benefits across clinical, financial, and workforce development domains.
Community Health Care: Puyallup Health Center Designed for Patient Experience
CHC opened its newest location in Puyallup in response to the growing need for accessible and comprehensive healthcare in East Pierce County. Community members in the smaller towns and unincorporated areas have struggled to find care that is affordable, coordinated, and nearby.
Unity Care NW & InReach: Dental Assitant Training Programs and Their Roles in Community Health Centers
As the dental workforce shortage persisted, the InReach program created a stronger, more robust stand-alone DA Training Program. The revised curriculum was launched in 2022 to address the increasing shortage and help community health centers grow their own workforce by having students work through the course while being employed.
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Family Health Centers: Leveraging Team Based Care to Improve Population Health
FHC has implemented a new model of care, prioritizing the integration of population-specific services through team-based care quality improvement efforts. Their work’s goal is the long-term sustainability of important services in their community, and seamless patient access to comprehensive care.
CHAS Health: Using PRAPARE Community Health Worker (CHW)Team to Address Patients Social Needs
Understanding the social needs of patients has always been embedded into their mission. They understood that to successfully launch an SDOH screener they needed cross-department collaboration. This workgroup identified members, developed objectives with trackable goals and timelines, and executed a rollout plan.
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Community Health Center of Snohomish County: Behavioral Health Triage Clinician
An influx of behavioral health cases made it incredibly challenging for the Behavioral Health Provider to maintain a full schedule of providing care while simultaneously remaining available for crisis calls/situations. After analyzing the situation, CHC created a new position, Behavioral Health Triage Clinician, to lessen the load of their BH provider.