About the Innovation Lab
What is the Innovation Lab?
The Northwest Regional Primary Care Association Innovation Lab is a collaborative of six participating teams who will explore new frameworks and approaches to community well-being. The lab provides a forum for sharing promising practices and encourage intra- and inter-CHC implementation collaboration on select initiatives.
Community Health Centers (CHCs) are on the frontline for caring for community members shouldering some of the greatest burdens of social and racial inequities. The CHC movement, dating back to 1965, was led by civil rights activists committed to finding practical and humane solutions for Americans most impacted by poverty and desperate for health care. These pioneers saw the links between health, wealth, and well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic further revealed the deep and growing structural inequities that persist in America. CHCs played a critical role throughout the pandemic—providing preventive care through vaccine administration, treatment for those infected with the virus, as well as crucial education and outreach as a known and trusted resource to community members. While the Federal declaration of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency may have come to a close, the need remains for a supportive infrastructure of comprehensive whole-of-person care, particularly for those communities served by CHCs. This is particularly true given the end of the Medicaid continuous enrollment provision, which is expected to result in loss of health coverage for many currently covered under the program. Leaders of the CHCs therefore remain called upon to further advance equitable health and well-being for all community members.
This pilot Innovation Lab is an opportunity to reimagine the role(s), partnerships, and strategies of CHCs in working with local, state and national partners to address the Vital Conditions facing the most vulnerable in their communities. Pilot CHCs have joined a cohort of regional peer leaders, as well as engage as appropriate and mutually beneficial with national thought leaders such as the Community Initiatives Network and the Rippel Foundation, to explore and co-create new practices, tools, and metrics for CHC stewardship of organizational and system changes that will foster thriving at the patient, organizational and community levels.
Overall Aims
1) Facilitate movement of participating CHCs along the continuum from transactional interventions (i.e., short-term efforts to address health-related social needs) toward activating transformational change (i.e., introduction and pursuit of those stewardship practices necessary for effective systems change, such as shifting investments toward vital conditions and community thriving).
2) Capture practices, multisolving strategies, bright spots, and identified barriers to inform the development of a Primer/ Practice Guide to reimagine and illustrate the potential role of CHCs in the larger movement to thrive together (i.e., CHC 2.0). Subsequent activities would include disseminating findings, when and as appropriate, to CHCs both regionally and nationally.
3) Set stage for 2nd phase of the Innovation Lab (Summer/Fall 2024) focused on deeper application of—and innovation through–identified strategies, including implementing changes in specific thematic areas using new framework and practices (and with more resources).