A two-year, $3 million initiative will create a statewide network of safety net providers to improve the quality of care to underserved Coloradans. The Colorado Innovation Community is the first peer-learning collaborative of its kind focused on innovation in Colorado’s safety net.
Despite the rapid expansion of healthcare models and technology solutions available in the field, safety net providers often face barriers to innovation. Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), community behavioral health clinics and critical access hospitals encounter challenges including limited time, resource and staffing capacity and high overhead expenses.
The Colorado Health Foundation, the Denver Foundation, Rose Community Foundation and Colorado Access have funded the new Colorado Innovation Community to support organizations as they explore effective and affordable patient-centered solutions. Ultimately, it is the goal of the Colorado Innovation Community to improve access to care and advance health equity among the state’s Medicaid, uninsured and undocumented community members.
Over the next two years, the founding members will meet regularly to identify, test and evaluate a broad set of innovative healthcare practices that include participation in a training program on applying human-centered design to address the most pressing challenges for underserved communities.
The founding members selected to join the first cohort are:
• Clinica Family Health: Federally Qualified Health Center serving 56,000 patients through six outpatient clinics in South Boulder, Broomfield and West Adams County.
• Every Child Pediatrics: Community health clinic serving nearly 24,000 Colorado children in four stand-alone medical offices and nine school-based health centers across the state.
• Jefferson Center for Mental Health: Behavioral health clinic serving more than 32,000 people annually at 18 clinic locations in Jefferson, Gilpin and Clear Creek counties.
• Melissa Memorial Hospital: Critical Access Hospital with 15 beds and a rural health clinic serving the more than 13,000 residents of Phillips County for over 100 years.
• Mental Health Center of Denver: Behavioral health clinic providing services and outreach to almost 70,000 children, families and adults annually at nine clinic locations and over 25 school-based sites in the City and County of Denver.
• Solvista Health: Behavioral health clinic serving more than 4,000 Coloradans at five locations across Fremont, Chaffee, Lake and Custer counties.
• STRIDE Community Health Center: Federally Qualified Health Center serving 54,000 Coloradans across nearly 20 health center locations in Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas, Jefferson, and Park counties.
The Center for Care Innovations (CCI), a California-based nonprofit with nearly two decades of experience creating similar safety net innovation communities across the country, will manage the initiative.
“Safety net providers across Colorado often have limited time, resources and staff to effectively evaluate, adopt and scale innovative practices in their clinics such as patients using cell phones to remotely engage with their care team or using technology platforms to better connect with community-based partners,” said Veenu Aulakh, CCI’s president, in a prepared statement. “This learning collaborative creates a dedicated commitment of time and resources for them to connect with each other to learn about best practices and take advantage of other experts in the field.”
In addition to the opportunity to learn from leading innovators and get hands-on support from technical experts, participating providers will receive grant funding to pilot the adoption of new technology solutions that will solve an access-to-care challenge for their patient populations.
“The bottom line is while our safety net providers understand the complex health needs that exist for low-income and rural Coloradans, providers are currently ill-equipped to effectively capitalize on innovative technologies that can increase access to culturally-competent care within their local communities,” said Ben L. Bynum M.D., portfolio director of program-related investments at the Colorado Health Foundation, in a statement. “We see the launch of the Colorado Innovation Community as a catalyst for increasing the capacity of clinics to serve Coloradans living on low income with high-quality, comprehensive and integrated care that’s centered on a patients’ vulnerabilities, unique needs and individual preferences.”
