The DC Connected Care Network (CCN) is excited to welcome Allyson Smith as the Director of Population Health. Allyson is coming from Holy Cross Hospital with tremendous experience in epidemiology, biostatistics, disease management and quality improvement. Allyson is board certified in infection control and epidemiology, holds a Masters of Public Health from George Washington University School of Public Health and a Bachelors of Science from Xavier University of Louisiana. Allyson will be primarily responsible for CCN reporting and report distribution, performance tracking, and population health analytics. Allyson can be reached at [email protected].

On October 1, 2019 the Capital Partners in Care (CPC) HIE will begin exchanging behavioral health information for patients served by CPC-HIE participants. Behavioral health information will be accessible to all authorized providers who access patient clinical information through the CPC-HIE as well as through CRISP DC HIE tools such as the Patient Care Snapshot and Health Records. 

Consistent with the requirements established by the “Mental Health Information Disclosure Amendment Act of 2018”, CPC-HIE participating organizations are modifying their Notices of Privacy Practices (NPP) to ensure that all patients are informed of the intent to share behavioral health data through the HIE and provided the opportunity to opt out of further HIE participation. We expect all NPPs to be updated by September 15, 2019 to ensure participant readiness for our planned October 1 behavioral health data exchange ‘go live’ date. 

On August 18 ^th 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) hosted a Million Hearts meeting in Chicago to highlight the work of Year 1 Preventing Heart Attacks and Strokes in Primary Care projects and discuss the aim for Year 2. In attendance were 29 health centers across the nation and project leads from 7 Health Center Controlled Networks (HCCN).

Congratulations to Community of Hope, Elaine Ellis Center of Health, Unity Health Care and Family and Medical Counseling Service Inc. for the work they have done on this project to-date to improve care for hypertension. The DC project is facilitated by our HCCN ("Qual IT") team comprised of HeathEfficient and DCPCA.

Meeting attendees discussed progress in Year 1 across the three projects:

For Year 2, DCPCA will continue to support health centers with their implementation framework, team engagement and training, workflow analysis, data collection and as well as cultivating opportunities of peer sharing and community building.

If your health center that is interesting in participating in Year 2, contact Berlinda Olivier, Quality Improvement Specialist at [email protected] .

Following the launch of the Maternal Health Equity Action Lab in June, the team of maternal health context and content experts has moved into the Design Team phase. DCPCA is supporting three teams:

The Postpartum Supports team created a survey to better understand the most important postpartum supports for black mothers in DC. Please share the DC Postpartum Care Survey. with black mothers who want to influence the interventions the Postpartum group designs!

The Respectful Care Team is planning a mother’s brunch and focus group with black mothers in the District to get feedback on a Respectful Care Check List for providers. Black mothers in the District Register Here .

Stay tuned for The Awareness and Access team’s test of a text-messaging service to link women to needed information and services.

DCPCA, in partnership with DC’s Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF), is leading a research initiative as a first phase of development for the Community Resource Inventory Exchange (CoRIE) . One of this project’s main objectives is the development of Community Resource Inventory infrastructure to facilitate the sharing of information about the health, human, and social services available to DC residents.

DCPCA has been collaborating with Open Referral, a community of practice for information and referral systems practitioners, to engage with staff maintaining resource inventories of human, health, and social services in the District across multiple public, non-profit and commercial organizations. We have interviewed over a dozen staff involved in this data maintenance, and are analyzing nine databases of resources to assess opportunities for increased data quality and decreased data maintenance burden. We are now planning for a convening of these practitioners on September 5 ^th , where we will reflect on the findings from our first phase of research. We expect to have actionable next steps for participants and recommendations for future investment and policymaking on community resource inventory. 

If you or someone in you know produces a resource inventory for use in referring your patients or clients, or if you would like to learn more about the CoRIE project, please contact David Poms at [email protected] or 202-552-2305. 

Please join DC Health and District partners at the DC HMC Health Emergency Preparedness Summit. We will provide an educational forum for the public health and healthcare community to share best practices and lessons learned as it relates to emergency preparedness, response, and mitigation. The Summit will feature speakers from around the nation and the National Capital Region who will address key considerations in emergency management to include Highly Infectious Disease Response, EMS response to a complex coordinated attack, Emergency Support Function-8 disaster coordination and recovery from cyber-related incidents affecting the healthcare facilities. 

Thursday, September 26, 2019

9am-3:30pm

Union Station Events in the East Hall.

Following the conclusion of the conference, DC Health is hosting an open house from 4-6pm at DC Health, 899. North Capitol St. Washington, DC 20002.

Register Here



Explore the findings from the District's 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) via a series of interactive webinars. The DC Health Matters Collaborative designed our assessment using a health equity lens and focused on four priority areas: Mental Health, Care Coordination, Health Literacy and Place-Based Care. The 2019 CHNA findings are grouped into a rich collection of 28 top themes. The full report is available on   DCHealthMatters.org .

The first session begins September 4th at 2 pm.

Register Here



Join Mayor Muriel Bowser at the National Maternal & Infant Health Summit to build on the growing public awareness and interest in this important issue and the District's new approach to ensure the health of women, babies and families.

Tuesday, September 10, 2019 | 9:00 am

Walter E. Washington Convention Center | 801 Mt. Vernon Place NW | 3rd Floor Ballroom Washington, DC 20001

RSVP Here

HRSA delivered a presentation on strategic goals and what this means for PCAs and health centers. To download this infographic and to read about HRSA's strategies moving forward, click here.

Thomas Engels was named Acting Administrator for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on Aug. 1 and will oversee the execution of HRSA's $11.7 billion annual budget. Mr. Engel's predecessor, Dr. George Sigounas, has been reassigned to an advisor role in the office of the HHS Secretary. Before joining HRSA six months ago as Principal Deputy Administrator, Mr. Engels was Deputy Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services from 2015 to 2019. He was an active member of the Governor's Task Force on Opioid Abuse and also chaired the Governor's Human Resources Shared Services Executive Committee. Read more .

HRSA is soliciting comments on proposed changes to the 2020 UDS, which Health Center Program awardees and Look-Alikes would be required to report on in February 2021. Review the 2020 UDS Proposed Changes Program Assistance Letter and submit comments through the Health Center Program Support form (select "Uniform Data System (UDS)" from the issue type category). Deadline for comments is September 24.

To catch up on HRSA news, check out the latest edition of the Bureau of Primary Health Care, Primary Care Digest.