Friday, December 6, 2024
12/6/2024
Established in 1973, Whitman-Walker Health (WWH) is a Federally Qualified Health Care Center (FQHC) and Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. WWH offers primary medical and dental care; HIV/AIDS specialty care, mental health and addictions counseling and treatment; HIV education, prevention, and testing; support groups; legal services; and medical adherence case management. WWH has been a Ryan White Part C grantee since 1991 and remains committed to meeting the health needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities and people living with HIV. WWH will use capacity development funds for Infrastructure Development, specifically to continue expanding capabilities of the electronic health record (EHR) to support telehealth as a much-needed response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed service area for this capacity building grant is the entire District of Columbia. WWH requests $150,000 for this one-year project. WWH serves 30% of people living with HIV in the District. WWH requests statutory preference, as HIV services in the DC area do not sufficiently address the need. HIV+ patients at WWH are predominantly Black. In describing gender, approximately three-quarters of WWH’s patients are male and 9% transgender, with over half identifying as non-heterosexual. Thirty-six percent of patients are covered by public insurance plans and 55% fall under 200% of the federal poverty level. WWH centers are well-situated, geographically, to provide services to underserved communities. Washington, DC has one of the highest rates of HIV transmission in the country and falls within the CDC’s definition of an epidemic. It is essential for community health centers to provide the highest quality and most innovative care possible as part of a coordinated response to the epidemic. As part of WWH’s efforts to reduce the impact of HIV and achieve the objectives of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, Popu lation Health & Quality (PHQ) staff will expand and oversee provider and frontline staff use of Relevant, a population health platform, as a complement to the eClinicalWorks (eCW) Electronic Health Record (EHR) and tailor its use specifically to align with WWH’s unique patient populations and evolving program needs. Leveraging the sophisticated analytics provided by Relevant will improve patient engagement via telehealth, streamline care planning, and support implementation of targeted HIV interventions via telehealth modalities. Relevant will continue to allow for real-time dashboards and visualizations of WWH’s patient populations, segmented in meaningful ways that allow the staff to target tele-interventions based on risk and need. PHQ staff will undergo advanced training in structured query language (SQL) to use Relevant to capture, model, and analyze patient information to improve and enhance service delivery in the health center, leading to better management of patient care, seeing to patients’ needs more efficiently, and improving their satisfaction levels. This capacity-building expansion of WWH’s EHR and companion analytics will support efforts toward achieving two of the three National HIV/AIDS Strategy goals: 1) Increase access to care and improve health outcomes for people living with HIV and 2) Reduce HIV-related health disparities.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
