Colorado Community Health Network

The Colorado Community Health Network (CCHN) is a 501(c)(3) membership association of Colorado's 17 Community Health Centers that together are the backbone of the primary healthcare safety net in Colorado. Since its inception in 1982, CCHN has made significant strides in ensuring that Colorado's low-income residents have access to affordable, high-quality primary healthcare.

CCHN is committed to:

• Educating policy makers and stakeholders about the unique needs of community health centers (CHCs) and their patients
• Providing resources to ensure that CHCs are strong organizations
• Supporting CHCs in maintaining the highest quality of care

Goals for the Initiative

The vision of this Regional Coordinating Center (RCC) was to use the resources and tools of this Initiative to build upon existing organizational priorities and state legislative support for a statewide patient-centered medical home (PCMH) collaborative. The role of the executive sponsor, CCHN, was to bridge health policy with the system change needed to advance the spread of the Patient-Centered Medical Home Model to safety net providers.

• Coordinate medical home initiatives across other Commonwealth-funded PCMH initiatives in Colorado
• Develop a model, toolkit and process of how every safety net clinic in Colorado can become a PCMH
• Define PCMH for Colorado safety net clinics in a way that is sensitive to the safety net system and the Colorado environment
• Provide recognition for Colorado safety net clinics for the high-quality work they are doing, and define and recognize opportunities for growth

Throughout the four years of the PCMH initiative, the expertise and resources of the national Project Team supported the implementation and effectiveness of the statewide collaborative. The executive sponsor and key stakeholders coordinated activities around health policy, healthcare delivery mechanisms and recommended practice improvement models to enhance the political, financial and cultural environment that supports patient-centered medical homes.

Partner Clinics

Participating clinics included 10 federally-qualified health centers (FQHCs), one non-federally funded health center and two rural health centers. While the majority of the selected sites are in the Denver Metro Area, where most of the Colorado population resides, selected clinics are on Colorado's eastern plains, in mountain communities and in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. The involvement of these diverse sites and communities allowed for greater spread of the PCMH in a variety of Colorado practice models, as well as the identification of policy issues and solutions that were appropriate for diverse communities throughout the state.

• Clinica Family Health Services
  • People's Clinic—Boulder
  • Pecos Medical Center—Denver
  • Thornton Medical Center—Thornton
• Custer County Clinic
• Denver Health
  • Gipson Eastside Family Health Center—Denver
  • La Casa/Quigg Newton Clinic—Denver
  • Sandos Westside Family Health Center—Denver
• High Plains Community Health Center—Lamar
• Inner City Health Center—Denver
• Metro Community Provider Network
  • Jeffco Clinic—Lakewood
• Valley Wide Health Systems
  • Alamosa Family Medical Center—Alamosa
  • Sierra Blanca Medical Center—Alamosa
• Yuma Rural Health Clinic—Yuma

Links

• The Colorado Community Health Network

Tools and Resources

• Knowledge Gateway, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services www.healthcarecommunities.org

Key Contacts

Annette Kowal
Executive Sponsor
Colorado Community Health Network
600 Grant Street, Suite 800
Denver, CO 80203
annette@cchn.org

Jessica Sanchez, RN, FNP, MS
Medical Home Facilitator
Colorado Community Health Network
600 Grant Street, Suite 800
Denver, CO 80203
jessica@cchn.org