NACHC, eClinicalWorks Partner to Advance AI at Community Health Centers

The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) and eClinicalWorks are partnering to expand the adoption of health IT and AI solutions by community health centers (CHCs).

This multi-year partnership aims to equip CHCs with thought leadership and insights to ensure AI is a part of every primary care team and exam room, according to NACHC.

NACHC represents America’s 1,512 CHCs across the country. CHCs serve up to 1 in 7 people across the nation, including up to 1 in 3 in rural America with a 330,000-strong workforce. The organization noted that eClinicalWorks’ EHR software and solutions for telehealth, population health, patient engagement, and revenue cycle management support 850 CHCs annually. 

The new partnership will be implemented through a Science, Education, Practice, and Policy framework and includes the following activities:
Science: Supporting the fielding of an annual national survey of CHCs through the NACHC Dr. John W. Hatch Center for Science to assess the state of health IT and AI adoption, implementation challenges, and emerging needs. Results will inform NACHC’s educational programming, practice communities, and ongoing national AI strategy and policy.
Education: Organizing and developing educational sessions, webinars, workshops, and other learning opportunities for CHCs to learn about health IT and AI topics from consumer board members to front-line primary care clinicians.
Practice: Learnings from NACHC annual survey and educational sessions will inform the creation and development of an online health IT and AI innovation community to encourage peer learning and exchange among CHC technology leaders (including but not limited to CMIOs, CHIOs, CTOs, CIOs).  eClinicalWorks will also add their bundled AI solutions to NACHC Select to assure affordability, access, and support of NACHC’s mission.
Policy: Insights from our annual survey, educational sessions, and practice communities will inform ongoing health policy work that is focused on assuring that health IT and AI at CHCs is accessible, responsible, ethical, and transparent for the patients and workforces that CHCs serve.

“Health professionals will not be replaced by AI, but health professionals that don’t use AI will be replaced by those who do. This partnership is an important step toward ensuring CHCs, their workforce, and their patients are not left behind in the age of AI,” said Kyu Rhee, M.D., president and CEO of NACHC, in a statement. “From accelerating the use of ambient and predictive AI to streamlining clinical documentation and operations to the upcoming challenges posed by Medicaid eligibility changes, CHCs will increasingly rely on field-tested AI solutions like those offered by eClinicalWorks. Embracing technology and AI so that CHCs are not only high-trust, but also high-tech is critical as CHCs are employers, providers, and partners of choice across the health system.”

In a statement, one community health center executive shared how AI is already impacting their work: “AI-powered solutions from eClinicalWorks have transformed how our staff take care of patients,” said Paloma Hernandez, CEO of Urban Health Plan. “The healow AI-powered no-show prediction model integrated with eClinicalWorks has helped us achieve record-high monthly visit volumes and significantly reduced no-show rates, generating revenue we can reinvest in patient services, improving health outcomes.”