Departments & Services

DCPCA’s HIT Department has a long history of providing technical support for the implementation, adoption and maintenance of electronic health records technologies on behalf of our member community health centers and the provider organizations to which they refer patients. In 2006, DCPCA received $6 million in grant funding to support the acquisition and implementation of an electronic health records (EHR) system for 6 ‘early adopter’ community health centers. This work resulted in the adoption of the eClinicalWorks (eCW) EHR platform to support clinical operations at the majority of DCPCA’s member health centers. It also led to the development of DCPCA’s managed services capabilities, which include eCW hosting, operations and maintenance services, and a set of user support offerings that include eCW helpdesk support and user training services.

DCPCA’s HIT Implementation, Operations and Support initiatives include:

District of Columbia Regional Extension Center (REC) Program - From 2010-2016, DCPCA served as the District’s REC under a cooperative agreement with the US Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC-HIT). To facilitate our execution of this agreement, DCPCA established eHealthDC as a program though which we would provide EHR adoption and Meaningful Use (MU) outreach, education and technical assistance to more than 1000 eligible providers who deliver health care services to Medicaid beneficiaries at ambulatory practices and health systems across the District of Columbia.

DHCF HIT/HIE Technical Assistance and Outreach Program - In 2017, DCPCA’s eHealthDC program was awarded a 5-year contract with the DC Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF) to help establish and administer the District’s Promoting Interoperability(PI)/Meaningful Use (MU) program funded by CMS. The eHealthDC team, which included partners Clinovations Government + Health and Zane Networks, offered free technical assistance and Meaningful Use (MU) guidance to Medicaid-eligible professionals participating in the District’s Medicaid EHR Incentive Program (MEIP) to support their adoption and effective use of EHR and HIE technologies. To support this effort, eHealthDC launched an innovative workforce development and training initiative to place public health interns from participating anchor institutions into safety-net clinics to help patients learn and use available technologies to facilitate remote access to their health records and improve engagement with their health care providers. As of 9/30/2021, the eHealthDC team delivered MU/PI TA services to 92 provider organizations, resulting in successful MU achievement for an additional 600 eligible Medicaid providers who earned incentive payments valued at nearly $6 million.

eCW Hosting, Support and Training Services - DCPCA hosts and maintains electronic health records (EHR) for eight community health centers (CHCs) and provides EHR operations training and technical support services to nearly 1400 health center staff. We also provide eCW operations and user support to the DC Health and Wellness Center and to the ambulatory providers affiliated with United Medical Center (UMC). As a customer of the DCPCA eCW Hosting and Support network, each participating organization is able to leverage their staff competencies with the expertise of DCPCA. This combination of skills and knowledge provides a cost-effective approach for an organization to maintain and support an enterprise-wide, mission critical application.  DCPCA customers are provided the support and integration with other CHCs to ensure they are using eCW effectively and to its fullest potential.  Our eCW hosting, support and training services include:

• Level II Helpdesk Support

• eCW Upgrade Support

• Network Infrastructure Technical Assistance

• eCW User Training and Support

• Customized User Guides and Training Materials

Description tDCPCA is at the center of efforts with the DC government, MCOs, and CHCs to build a value-based pay system that aligns incentives with positive patient outcomes, maximizes health center sustainability, and results in a healthier DC. These efforts depend on the availability of current, actionable clinical and administrative data that enable real-time monitoring of clinical delivery processes and related patient outcomes. To support these efforts, we provide our member health centers with various tools, trainings, technical support, and data management services to assist with daily operations (administrative, clinical and financial) monitoring as well as government and other grant-defined reporting requirements. We utilize eClinicalWorks, BridgeIT, Tableau and HealthEC data aggregation and reporting tools, which provide access to pre-developed and ad-hoc custom reports, to meet a variety of health center operating and regulatory reporting requirements. The data available through our clinical and Medicaid claims data warehouses help our member health centers access the information they need to provide effective care management for their specific populations.  ext goes here

DCPCA has been engaged in HIE development efforts in the District of Columbia since 2008 when we managed the development and implementation of the DC RHIO health information exchange (HIE), the first operating HIE in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. We continue to advocate for the implementation of health information exchange technologies to support the District’s provider community, actively engaging in efforts to build a Health Information Exchange (HIE) network that facilitates transitions of care among CHC providers and across other care settings. DCPCA operates and manages an HIE network that connects our CHC members and several independent ambulatory practices to CRISP, the regional HIE that serves as the District’s Designated HIE Entity. We also partner with CRISP to support the design, development and implementation of new HIE tools and capabilities that facilitate and enhance the real-time exchange of patient encounter data among all participating HIE provider organizations.

The HIT team’s HIE interoperability initiatives include:

DC HIE Connectivity Program - In 2019, the Department of Health Care Finance awarded a 2-year HIE Connectivity grant to the Enlightened, Inc, which partnered with DCPCA, Zane Networks, CRISP DC and Children’s National Medical Center to connect eligible Medicaid providers to the DC Health Information Exchange (HIE), a system of District HIE entities, including DCPCA’s CPC-HIE, that meet common privacy, security, use, and access requirements. Through this grant, the team provided education, training, and promoted enrollment and data sharing/ interoperability with one of the District's health information exchanges. As of 9/30/2021, the team had completed outreach to 311 practices and succeeded in connecting 129 provider organizations to the HIE. This effort gave those providers access to consolidated patient data through the CRISP portal and helped 105 of those organizations to acquire electronic encounter and clinical data sharing capabilities.

Capital Partners in Care (CPC) Health Information Exchange - Since 2014, DCPCA has been responsible for overseeing the implementation, governance and management of the Capital Partners in Care (CPC) Health Information Exchange (HIE), which was initially established with funding from CMS to coordinate healthcare delivery and improve health outcomes for the District’s chronically ill residents. Under DCPCA leadership, the CPC-HIE has expanded to include 18 participating provider organizations (i.e., FQHCs, independent providers and hospital affiliated ambulatory practices), and in 2020, received recognition as one of two Registered HIE Entities in the District of Columbia. The CPC-HIE now houses clinical encounter and history data for more than 800,000 unique patients.

Core DC HIE Services - In 2017, DHCF awarded a multi-year grant to CRISP DC for the development and implementation of core HIE services to support the sharing of patient encounter and clinical among settings of care, and enable access to longitudinal patient data either through an HIE portal or through direct connections with provider EHR systems. DCPCA has supported CRISP DC in these design, development and implementation efforts, as a subgrantee, assisting with the development of eCQM and MyHealthGPS analytics reporting capabilities, as well as the implementation of an electronic provider directory and Electronic Notification Service (ENS) for the delivery of clinical documents to providers. DCPCA continues to support CRISP HIE development and implementation efforts, coordinating engagement with community health center and other CPC-HIE participating organizations.

DC HIE Policy Board Participation - DCPCA holds a seat on the DC HIE Policy Board, which is organized and managed by DHCF and where we are charged with representing the interests of the District’s safety net provider community.  As a member of the Board, we contribute to decision-making about the foundational components of HIE in the District and provide input and ‘lessons learned’ on HIE governance, capability and sustainability.  DCPCA’s Chief Technology Officer serves as a Mayoral appointee to the Board and is a participant on the HIE Operations, Compliance and Efficiency Subcommittee.