Health Center Controlled Network - ABSTRACT Project Title: Fiscal Year 2025 Health Center Controlled Network Cooperative Agreements Applicant Organization: Kentucky Health Center Network, Inc., a Health Center Controlled Network Address: P.O. Box 1127, Mt. Sterling, KY 40353 Project Director: Jennifer NeSmith Contact Phone Number: 859-274-7115 Email: jennifer.nesmith@kyhcn.org Website: www.kyhcn.org Current Grant Number: U86CS45878 Participating Health Centers: 24 Health Center Program award recipients, 2 Look-alikes Requested Funding Amount: $955,000 The Kentucky Health Center Network (KHCN) was formed in July 2012 and received a HRSA Health Center Controlled Network Award in December 2012 with the goal of helping member organizations adopt and implement electronic health records (EHR) and achieve meaningful use of EHRs and quality improvement through health information technology. Since being funded, KHCN has grown from 18 to 26 member organizations with more than 600 clinic sites. In the 2022-2025 funding period, KHCN is experiencing significant accomplishments in collaborating with Participating Health Centers (PHCs) to increase patient engagement and patient privacy and security, to use social risk factors and loop closures to support better health outcomes, to support UDS+ reporting, to promote interoperability of data exchange and integration, to increase data analysis and utilization capabilities, to leverage and improve the use of digital health tools, to increase health IT usability and adoption, and to advance health equity. Unfortunately, the health status of Kentuckians has not changed much since the KHCN was formed. It remains one of the poorest and least healthy states in the nation. To that end, the KHCN will work to improve the health status and health outcomes of all Kentuckians served by our PHCs. Even before the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, primary care providers were reportedly the most stressed in the profession due to the demands of population health management and the value-based payment arena. It is imperative that health IT systems are maximized to ensure patient and provider experiences are optimized so that patients are engaged in their own health care and outcomes, and the burden of providers is reduced. We must also advance the interoperability of health information to improve care coordination, enhance value, and reduce overall healthcare costs. Supporting disaggregated, patient-level data reporting at the federal level is important work to continue to reduce PHC reporting burden and to improve the quality and granularity to better evaluate the Health Center Program services and outcomes. With funding, KHCN will continue to support PHCs in leveraging health IT and data to enhance the delivery of affordable, accessible, and high-quality primary health care, with specific focus on improvements in data management and analytics, interoperability of systems and digital health tools, and UDS+ implementation. Proposed services will include those that will support data management and analytics, interoperability and data sharing, UDS+ implementation, strengthening cybersecurity support, and social risk factors.
