John Muench

Developing a Network of Community Health Centers With a Common Electronic Health Record: Description of the Safety Net West Practice-based Research Network (SNW-PBRN)

In 2001, community health center (CHC) leaders in Oregon established an organization to facilitate the integration of health information technology, including a shared electronic health record (EHR), into safety net clinics. The Oregon Community Health Information Network (shortened to OCHIN as other states joined) became a CHC information technology hub, supporting a network-wide EHR with one master patient index, now linked across >40 safety net organizations serving >900,000 patients with nearly 800,000 distinct CHC visits. Recognizing the potential of OCHIN′s multiclinic network and comprehensive EHR database for conducting safety net-based research, OCHIN leaders and local researchers formed the Safety Net West practice-based research network (PBRN). The Safety Net West “community- based laboratory,” based at OCHIN, is positioned to become an important resource for many studies including: evaluation of the real-time impact of health care reform on uninsured populations; development of new models of primary care delivery; dissemination and translation of interventions from other EHR-based systems (e.g., Kaiser Permanente) into the community health setting; and analyses of factors influencing disparities in health and health care access. We describe the founding of Safety Net West, its infrastructure development, current projects, and the future goals of this community-based PBRN with a common EHR.

Tilling the Soil while Sowing the Seeds: Combining Resident Education with Medical Home Transformation.

ABSTRACT In order to successfully integrate screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) into primary care, education of clinicians must be paired with sustainable transformation of the clinical settings in which they practice. The SBIRT Oregon project adopted this strategy in an effort to fully integrate SBIRT into 7 primary care residency clinics. Residents were trained to assess and intervene in their patients’ unhealthy substance use, whereas clinic staff personnel were trained to carry out a multistep screening process. Electronic medical record tools were created to further integrate and track SBIRT processes. This article describes how a resident training curriculum complemented and was informed by the transformation of workflow processes within the residents’ home clinics.

Implementing a team-based SBIRT model in primary care clinics

Abstract Background & aim: Six Oregon primary care clinics integrated a team-based, systematized alcohol and drug Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) process into their standard clinic workflow. Clinic staff administered screening forms and brief assessments, and clinicians were trained to perform brief interventions and treatment referrals when needed. Methods: Patient-level data from the electronic health record (EHR) were used to calculate implementation rates in each clinic – specifically, how often each step of a 3-step SBIRT process was performed when indicated. Rates were tracked on a quarterly basis over 2 years. Results: Implementation rates increased over time for screening and assessment tasks performed by clinic staff, but not for brief interventions performed by clinicians. Averaged over time, annual screens were given to approximately 44% of eligible patients, brief assessments to around 66% of eligible patients, and brief interventions to about 40% of those eligible. Considerable variability existed across individual clinics, some of which demonstrated notably high rates. Conclusion: A team-based approach to SBIRT in primary care settings capitalizes on the medical home model but also creates unique challenges. Facilitative EHR tools are necessary.

Building research infrastructure in community health centers: a Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN) report.

This article introduces the Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN), a practice-based research network of community health centers (CHCs). Established by the Health Resources and Services Administration in 2010, CHARN is a network of 4 community research nodes, each with multiple affiliated CHCs and an academic center. The four nodes (18 individual CHCs and 4 academic partners in 9 states) are supported by a data coordinating center. Here we provide case studies detailing how CHARN is building research infrastructure and capacity in CHCs, with a particular focus on how community practice-academic partnerships were facilitated by the CHARN structure. The examples provided by the CHARN nodes include many of the building blocks of research capacity: communication capacity and “matchmaking” between providers and researchers; technology transfer; research methods tailored to community practice settings; and community institutional review board infrastructure to enable community oversight. We draw lessons learned from these case studies that we hope will serve as examples for other networks, with special relevance for community-based networks seeking to build research infrastructure in primary care settings.

Collaborative development of a randomized study to adapt a diabetes quality improvement initiative for federally qualified health centers.

Summary: This case study describes how we are translating a diabetes care quality improvement initiative from an insured (HMO) setting into federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). We outline the innovative collaborative processes whereby researchers and FQHC providers adapted this initiative, which includes health information technology tools, to meet the FQHCs’ needs.

Training the evidence-based practitioner: university of Western States document on standards and competencies.

An important goal of chiropractic clinical education should be to teach specific evidence-based practice (EBP) skills to chiropractic students, interns, and doctors. Using a nominal group process, the authors produced a document similar to the Council of Chiropractic Education standards for clinical competencies that can be used to drive an EBP curriculum. Standard texts and journal articles were consulted to create the standards for this program and each standard and corresponding learning objective was discussed in detail and was then graded by the committee in terms of importance and the level of competency that should be attained. Six standards and 31 learning objectives were generated with the learning objectives being further divided into lists of specific competencies. It is the hope of these authors that by sharing this document it can serve as a comprehensive and detailed seed document for other institutions.

Medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorders within a national community health center research network

ABSTRACT Background: The Affordable Care Act increases access to treatment services for people who suffer from substance use disorders (SUDs), including alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and opioid use disorders (OUDs). This increased access to treatment has broad implications for delivering health services and creates a dramatic need for transformation in clinical care, service lines, and collaborative care models. Medication-assisted treatments (MAT) are effective for helping SUD patients reach better outcomes. This article uses electronic health record (EHR) data to examine the prevalence of EHR-documented SUDs, patient characteristics, and patterns of MAT prescribing and screening for patients within the Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN), a national network of 17 community health centers that facilitates patient-centered outcomes research among underserved populations. Methods: Hierarchical generalized linear models examined patient characteristics, SUD occurrence rates, MAT prescription, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis virus C screening for patients with AUDs or OUDs. Results: Among 572,582 CHARN adult patients, 16,947 (3.0%) had a documented AUD diagnosis and 6,080 (1.1%) an OUD diagnosis. Alcohol MAT prescriptions were documented for 547 AUD patients (3.2%) and opioid MAT for 1,764 OUD patients (29.0%). Among OUD patients, opioid MAT was significantly associated with HIV screening (odds ratio [OR] = 1.31, P < .001) in OUD patients, as was alcohol MAT among AUD patients (OR = 1.30, P = .013). Conclusions: These findings suggest that effective opioid and alcohol MAT may be substantially underprescribed among safety-net patients identified as having OUDs or AUDs.

Alcohol screening among opioid agonist patients in a primary care clinic and an opioid treatment program

Abstract Problem alcohol use is associated with adverse health and economic outcomes, especially among people in opioid agonist treatment. Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) are effective in reducing alcohol use; however, issues involved in SBIRT implementation among opioid agonist patients are unknown. To assess identification and treatment of alcohol use disorders, we reviewed clinical records of opioid agonist patients screened for an alcohol use disorder in a primary care clinic (n = 208) and in an opioid treatment program (n = 204) over a two-year period. In the primary care clinic, 193 (93%) buprenorphine patients completed an annual alcohol screening and six (3%) had elevated AUDIT scores. In the opioid treatment program, an alcohol abuse or dependence diagnosis was recorded for 54 (27%) methadone patients. Practitioner focus groups were completed in the primary care (n = 4 physicians) and the opioid treatment program (n = 11 counselors) to assess experience with and attitudes towards screening opioid agonist patients for alcohol use disorders. Focus groups suggested that organizational, structural, provider, patient, and community variables hindered or fostered alcohol screening. Alcohol screening is feasible among opioid agonist patients. Effective implementation, however, requires physician training and systematic changes in workflow.

Perceptions of Clinical Team Members Toward Implementation of SBIRT Processes

This study implemented a systematized, team-based Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) process in six primary care clinics that incorporated efforts of receptionists, medical assistants, and physicians. Focus groups were conducted to identify key facilitators of and barriers to successful implementation. Buy-in from physicians and clinic leadership and seamless integration of SBIRT into the electronic medical record were noted as the strongest facilitators. Time constraints and personal discomfort discussing substance use were cited as major barriers. A team-based approach to SBIRT in primary care settings capitalizes on the medical home model but also creates unique barriers.

Preventive Service Use Among People With and Without Serious Mental Illnesses

INTRODUCTION People with serious mental illnesses experience excess morbidity and premature mortality resulting from preventable conditions. The goal was to examine disparities in preventive care that might account for poor health outcomes. METHODS In this retrospective cohort study, adults (N=803,276) served by Kaiser Permanente Northwest and federally qualified health centers/safety-net community health clinics were categorized into five groups: schizophrenia spectrum disorders, bipolar disorders/affective psychoses, anxiety disorders, nonpsychotic unipolar depression, and reference groups with no evidence of these specific mental illnesses. The primary outcome was overall preventive care-gap rate, the proportion of incomplete preventive services for which each patient was eligible in 2012-2013. Secondary analyses examined Kaiser Permanente Northwest data from 2002 to 2013. Data were analyzed in 2015. RESULTS Controlling for patient characteristics and health services use, Kaiser Permanente Northwest mean care-gap rates were significantly lower for bipolar disorders/affective psychoses (mean=18.6, p<0.001) and depression groups (mean=18.6, p<0.001) compared with the reference group. Schizophrenia (mean=19.4, p=0.236) and anxiety groups (mean=19.9, p=0.060) did not differ from the reference group (mean=20.3). In community health clinics, schizophrenia (mean=34.1, p<0.001), bipolar/affective psychosis (mean=35.7, p<0.001), anxiety (mean=38.5, p<0.001), and depression groups (mean=36.3, p<0.001) had significantly lower care-gap rates than those in the reference group (mean=40.0). Secondary analyses of diabetes and dyslipidemia screening trends in Kaiser Permanente Northwest showed diagnostic groups consistently had fewer care gaps than patients in the reference group. CONCLUSIONS In vastly different settings, individuals with serious mental illnesses received preventive services at equal or better rates than the general population.