The QI Chat Room

In this episode, we explore the role of Community Health Workers within Federally Qualified Health Centers and how Marin Community Clinics partnered with Aliados Health to design and launch their CHW pilot in response to the Medi-Cal CHW Benefit limitations on FQHCs.

In this episode, we discuss a major step forward in cervical cancer screening—HPV self-swab testing—and how Santa Rosa Community Health is using it to expand access and equity for patients who have struggled with traditional Pap smears.

In this episode, we discuss a major step forward in cervical cancer screening—HPV self-swab testing—and how Santa Rosa Community Health is using it to expand access and equity for patients who have struggled with traditional Pap smears.

Hello Ricardo, here is the link to a test recording. Please let me know if you need anything else. Passcode: 6=k#mBK% Best, Cristina

In this episode, we sit down with Marin Community Clinic's (MCC)quality improvement team and discuss their success in increasing breast and colorectal cancer screening rates. Join us to learn more about MCC's strategic interventions to achieve top performance in breast and colorectal cancer screenings

In this episode, we sat down with Dr. Josette Rivera, a distinguished professor of Medicine and a clinician educator at the renowned UCSF Division of Geriatrics. Kathryn Stambaugh, MPH,MBA, Geriatric Services Director from LifeLong Medical Care also joins us to share their journey on becoming an IHI Level 1 recognized Age Friendly Health System. Join us as we discuss Aliados Health’s collaboration with UCSF and explore training opportunities for the 4Ms within the Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Project. The 4Ms refer to optimizing older adult health through Medication, Mentation, Mobility, and What Matters Most. Learn how becoming an IHI Age-Friendly Heal...

This episode features a prenatal immunization discussion with an expert panel from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). It explores the impactful prenatal immunization multi-year project made possible by funding from CDPH and in partnership with Aliados Health and its member health centers. Hear about efforts to boost prenatal immunization rates and lead the charge in enhancing maternal and child health with community health centers in a six-county region. Learn about CDPH resources that can support your health center in your efforts to improve prenatal immunization rates.

Street medicine takes health services on the road, creating access outside of clinic walls to serve populations experiencing homelessness and other barriers to care. In this episode, we are introduced to LifeLong Medical Care's Street Dentistry program and the Botanical Bus's Mobile Herb Clinic, providing dental and homeopathic services to unhoused and migrant communities.

Aliados Health Sr. Program Managers Keira Dagy & Jennifer Inden talk with Health Centers about Patient Telehealth survey results, what the data tells them, and what should be taken into consideration in molding best practices when it comes to implementing a sustainable Virtual Care program.

First 5 Contra Costa is leading the local effort to implement Help Me Grow, a system of coordination used nationally to connect children to the early screening and community services they need to thrive. The HMG model has been implemented throughout the U.S. and in half of California’s counties. First 5 Contra Costa, the Contra Costa Crisis Center, and La Clinica de la Raza came together to develop a pilot to integrate ACE screening and response workflow utilizing the existing HMG model.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion reforms are critical and challenging. CommuniCare Health Centers strives to be humble and learn from their staff and the communities they serve, as well as commit to their own development in unlearning patriarchal, heterosexist, white-supremist systems, while learning anti-racism best practices in trauma informed care. This episode features CommuniCare’s Dr. Suzanne Eidson-Ton, Chief Medical Officer, Yvonne Page, Respite Services Supervisor, Sara Gavin, Chief Behavioral Health Officer, and Desirae Spignor, Behavioral Health Manager, who share their journey and specific examples of DEI and anti-racist efforts in their organization and community health centers, including agency-wide education efforts, ch...

Today’s episode features a street medicine conversation with our panel from CommuniCare Health Centers in Yolo County, Ritter Center in Marin County, and Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center in Solano County. According to the Street Medicine Institute, street medicine is the provision of health care directly to those living and sleeping on the streets through mobile services such as walking teams, medical vans, and outdoor clinics.

Join a conversation between Aliados Health's Population Health Department Director, Michelle Rosaschi, and Partnership Health Plan of California's Director of Care Coordination, Katherine Barresi, as they discuss the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) Enhance Care Management or ECM program.

Max Perrey in conversation with Rebecca Boyd Anderson, Director of Population Health for Partnership Health Plan celebrates their 2 year anniversary.

In honor of Black History Month, Dr. Mohamed A. Jalloh, Pharm.D., BCPS, Assistant Professor of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at Touro University California College of Pharmacy and Ambulatory Care Specialist at OLE Health Pharmacy Residency Program, is speaking on the role of race in medicine and the impact of race corrections in clinical algorithms. This podcast is inspired by the NEJM article: Hidden in Plain Sight-Reconsidering the Use of Race Correction in Clinical Algorithms. We invite you to click on the article link HERE to learn more.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically highlighted social inequities in health. In response, the American Heart Association (AHA) is launching a new evidence-based, community-driven effort to reduce hypertension. The National Hypertension Control Initiative (NHCI) seeks to improve health care and save lives in at-risk communities, which are most affected by hypertension and COVID-19. Listen in as AHA presents an overview and health centers share how they are accessing support and resources. This episode features Leslie Brown and Dionisio Palencia from AHA, Beth Dadko of Santa Rosa Community Health, and Jennifer Durst of OLE Health. To learn more about the great work...

This episode features our host Max Perrey in conversation with Eli White and Adam Unger of Covered California. Topics explored include how to protect your health, how to apply for health insurance coverage if you are uninsured, and what's new for those who are already insured.

Building with Community to Advance Health Equity: How to Implement a CIE In this final CIE podcast series episode, join Karis Grounds, Vice President of Health and Community Impact of 211/CIE San Diego, and Sheena Nahm McKinlay, VP of Research & Development of Health Leads as they discuss how to implement a CIE, including the key components of day-to-day operations.

Building with Community to Advance Health Equity: Authentic Community Engagement Listen in as Brenda Aguilera, Director of Community Transformation, Para Los Niños and Carlos Arceo, Program Manager, Para Los Niños passionately discuss the purpose of authentic partnership with the community to ensure the conditions created are addressed at the roots and ensure that community is involved, not just included. Learn about authentic community engagement and how to do it in ways that uplift vs tokenize.

This episode features our host Max Perrey in conversation with Rocio Rodriguez, Director of Sonoma County COAD, Tom Welch, Deputy Fire Chief of Operations for the Southern Marin Fire District and Melinda Rivera, Local Public Affairs Specialist for PG&E for Sonoma and Lake Counties. Topics include how best health centers, their staff and patients can best prepare for wildfire season in Northern California, what to include in a grab and go bag, and how to sign up for emergency alerts.

This episode is dedicated to increasing public awareness of CalFresh, which helps to improve access to healthy and nutritious foods. QI Chat Room Guest Host Yesenia Mendoza, Aliados Health CalFresh Program Manager, is in conversation with CalFresh representatives from Sonoma, Marin, and Alameda counties. This includes Rigoberto Morales Mendoza, Bank Food Connections Supervisor at the Redwood Empire Food, Alexandra Danino, Sr. Programs Manager at the San Francisco Marin Food Banks, Njeri McGee-Tyner, Chief Eligibility and Enrollment Officer at the Alameda Health Consortium, and Yoselyn Ayon, Outreach Program Manager at Catholic Charities. Together they cover who is eligible for CalFresh benefits...

Building with Community to Advance Health Equity: What is a CIE? Many communities across the country are considering the implementation of Community Information Exchanges, a model established by 211 San Diego, to advance community health. Local leaders in Marin, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, and Sonoma counties are exploring the design of equity-anchored CIE-inspired networks with the support of Health Leads, United Way Bay Area and Aliados Health. Session 1 of this 3-part knowledge building series features Julie Wang from Health Leads and Beth Johnson from 211 San Diego discussing the following questions: What is a Community Information Exchange and why is everyone talking...

This episode features Max Perrey who is the Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Aliados Health. Max will be interviewing our two guest speakers, Dr. Mike Witte, Chief Medical Officer at the California Primary Care Association, and Cindy Keltner, Director of Transformation at the California Primary Care Association. The topic for today’s session is Covid Telehealth Reflection & Telehealth Policy Response.

This episode features Dr. Joshua Weil of Kaiser Santa Rosa and the Jewish Community Free Clinic and Dr. Deborah Roberts from the Jewish Community Free Clinic who discuss Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy among staff and patients.

This episode features speakers from the Northern California Center for Well-Being, Carium, and Santa Rosa Community Health who will talk about their work with Community Health Workers (or CHWs) and partnerships that leverage this work.

Last week was Food Champion Week at Aliados Health. We hosted a Food Champion Roundtable event, and taped two podcast episodes related to food and nutrition. This is the second podcast episode and features Edye Kuyper from CommuniCare Health Centers. Edye Kuyper manages CommuniCare Health Centers’ food programs that connect patients with healthy food and with each other in order to prevent and manage diet-related disease. Raised on a farm in Vermont, Edye served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Mauritania. Edye holds an M.S. in International Agricultural Development from UC Davis. Prior roles include facilitating better integration of...

Last week was Food Champion Week at Aliados Health. We hosted a Food Champion Roundtable event, and taped two podcast episodes related to food and nutrition. This is one of the podcast episodes and features Dr. Steven Chen (Chief Medical Officer) of All In Alameda County and Jessica Jamison, MPH (Director of Patient and Community Engagement) of Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center. They discussed their many food initiatives including food as medicine. ALL IN Alameda County expanded its Food as Medicine to Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center in February 2020. Tiburcio is a primary care clinic in San Leandro, serving the Ashland and...

This episode features Dr. Danielle Oryn and Dr. Lisa Ward. Dr. Oryn is the Chief Medical Officer/Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Aliados Health. Dr. Ward is a Regional Medical Director at Marin Community Clinics (MCC), located in Marin County. Dr. Oryn will be asking Dr. Ward questions about MCC’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

This episode features Michaela Moss, a health educator from Marin City Health and Wellness Center (MCHW), who will talk about their food access and nutrition education initiatives. This is a unique episode, as it was recorded in March of 2020, just as the pandemic was starting to affect health centers. Many of the health center’s patient programs, including an in-person food pharmacy program, have been put on hold since the recording due to the pandemic.

This episode features Cathryn Couch who is the founder and CEO of Ceres Community Project, a non-profit working to foster health by connecting people to one another and to a healthier food system. Ceres provides 150,000 organic medically tailored meals annually to primarily low-income people struggling because of a health challenge. Youth volunteers grow food and prepare the meals as part of a youth development, culinary and food system education program. Ceres has trained a dozen communities across the United States and in Denmark to replicate their model and the organization supports 8 Affiliate Programs. Couch is the 2020 chair for the California...

This episode features health center staff Michelle Hill and Avani Bedagkar. Michelle is the CQI Coordinator at Long Valley Health Center (LVHC) in Laytonville, CA. She was the Patient-Centered Medical Home (or PCMH) Project Lead when LVHC applied for certification in 2018 using the new 2017 Standards and Distinction programs. LVHC was the 1st Health Center in California to receive the Distinction for Behavioral Health Integration. Michelle will discuss the application and renewal process for the PCMH Distinction for Behavioral Health Integration. This distinction helps practices provide comprehensive whole-person care that acknowledges the behavioral health needs of the individual beyond the core...

This episode features Julie Vlasis, "Compliance Officer and CQI Coordinator" for Sonoma Valley Community Health Center. In January of 2020, Sonoma Valley documented a promising practice titled “Continuous Glucose Monitoring for Uncontrolled Diabetic Patients”. While a lot has changed since January, Sonoma Valley has continued to expand its Continuous Glucose Monitoring (or CGM) project and are seeing significant results.

This episode is all about childcare. Childcare is an ever-present need for our workforce. Every county in California has a Resource and Referral (R & R) agency that serves as a hub for parents and childcare providers. They connect children and open spots, train providers, and manage financial assistance options that are available. This panel brings together the Executive Directors from the R & R agencies in Marin, Sonoma, Napa, and Solano counties to discuss concerns and potential solutions that they can help health centers to implement in both the short and long term. A summary of this episode can be found...

This episode features Jennifer Inden, Aliados Health’s Health Information Technology Project Manager. She is joined by three health center representatives who will explore the different facets of realizing a successful Patient Portal. A Patient Portal is a secure website or app which patients can access certain health records, review lab results, and send messages to their care team. For years it has been acknowledged that the use of health information technologies and online resources has great potential to boost care quality and increase patient engagement in their care. Despite the advantages to both patients and providers, the adoption of pa...

This episode is the sixth in our series of COVID-19 focused sessions. The goal of these sessions is to share information with health centers that can help make this challenging time a little bit easier. This will be our last COVID focused session and features Aliados Health’s CEO Dr. Karen Milman who will talk about Aliados Health’s response to COVID-19. Dr. Milman has focused her career on improving systems to address the health of both individuals and the community. She is passionate about promoting health equity. Dr. Milman has over ten years of experience working in governmental public heal...

This episode is the fifth in our series of COVID-19 focused sessions. The goal of these sessions is to share information with health centers that can help make this challenging time a little bit easier. Today we’re joined by four guests representing COADs and VOADs of Marin, Napa, and Sonoma Counties to talk about the work they’re doing during the COVID-19 pandemic specifically around food resources.

This episode is the fourth in our series of COVID-19 focused sessions. The goal of these sessions is to share information with health centers that can help make this challenging time a little bit easier. Today we’re joined by three health centers in Sonoma County and one in Marin County to talk about the homeless response during COVID. Each of our four guests will talk about their unique perspective on homeless outreach, programs, and policies at the health center, county, and state level.

This episode is the third in our series of COVID-19 focused sessions. The goal of these sessions is to share information with health centers that can help make this challenging time a little bit easier. Today we have a continuation of our last episode “What Matters Most to You?” with Dr. Ellen Barnett. She is a recently retired family doctor who practiced for 20 years at the Integrative Medical Clinic in Santa Rosa and was on the faculty of the Sutter Family Medicine Residency from 1987 to 2016. She developed the Imagine You project as part of her work in the nonprofit Integrative Medi...

This episode is the second in our series of COVID-19 focused sessions. The goal of these sessions is to share information with health centers that can help make this challenging time a little bit easier. This episode features Ellen Barnett who is a recently retired family doctor. She practiced for 20 years at the Integrative Medical Clinic in Santa Rosa and was on the faculty of the Sutter Family Medicine Residency from 1987 to 2016. She developed the Imagine You project as part of her work in the non profit Integrative Medical Clinic Foundation. Imagine You offers tools for self care that we...

This episode is the first episode in a series of COVID-19 focused sessions. Our goal is to share information with health centers that can help make this challenging time a little bit easier. Aliados Health’s Health Information Technology Project Manager, Jennifer Inden, joined this session. She brings years of experience working in a health center, and at Aliados Health has become our resident expert on telehealth. In our current state, telehealth is the primary way health centers can continue to care for their high risk populations. If you’re finding it challenging to keep up with the ever changing rule...