Monday, November 1, 2010

Kaiser Permanente Colorado and the Colorado Health Institute partner to conduct a first-of-its-kind state-level assessment of the magnitude and characteristics of this issue among primary care providers who serve low income and other vulnerable Coloradans.

Is lack of access to specialty services a problem for patients of your clinic? If you have not already responded, this is your opportunity to describe why or why not. This online survey is designed for medical directors of safety net clinics (including community-funded clinics, family medicine centers [residency programs], federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics) to help identify barriers to specialty care referrals as well as possible strategies for improvement. Other types of safety net providers may be included in future phases of the project.

The survey is administered on-line and consists of 31 questions. It takes about 20 minutes to complete. Results will be shared with survey respondents. Data compiled from the survey will also serve to inform stakeholders and community leaders, and may provide guidance for health care reform implementation. Although much of the survey is quantitative in nature, included are sections that allow you to describe the specialty care access challenges patients face in your own words, and they encourage you to take the time to provide us case examples as appropriate. Note that they will also follow up with a clinic administrator or data manager to ask four short items about patient and visit volume at your clinic.

Statement of Confidentiality
Your participation is voluntary and is critical to our understanding of access to specialty care issues in Colorado. All of your responses will remain confidential. They will combine your responses with the responses provided by others and report results in the aggregate only. They will first gain your permission if citing individual responses or quotations in future publications.

Please submit only one completed survey per clinical site. For example, if ABC Community Health Center operates two clinics, the survey would be completed by the medical director at each clinic. Although the decision of who responds to the survey is at your discretion, they request that it be a clinician (preferably medical or clinical director) who is knowledgeable about clinical referrals at your clinic. Feel free to solicit input from your colleagues to inform your responses to the survey.

Instructions for completing the survey:
To begin taking the survey, click on this link or paste it into your browser:

At the end of the survey, click the Submit button.

If you are completing the survey for an additional clinic(s), click on the appropriate link below:

They request that you complete the survey by COB on Monday, November 15, 2010 as the results are due to Kaiser Permanente in early December. 

Friday, October 22, 2010

New website for ClinicNET!

Although still in need of a little fine-tuning (I think that never actually ends) ClinicNET is pleased to announce its new website! Please have a look and let us know if information related to your clinic requires any editing/updating.

ClinicNET is now also on Facebook and we have a blog, the Safety Net Scene! We are super cool!   

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Maximizing Outreach, Retention, and Enrollment (MORE) Grant

If your clinic provides eligibility and enrollment assistance for Colorado Medicaid and the Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+) programs, you can apply for funding from HRSA, through the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.  The Maximizing Outreach, Retention, and Enrollment (MORE) Grant will fund outreach activities from January 1, 2011 through August 31, 2011 and awards range from $5,000 - $99,000.  Applications are due November 12 at 3pm MT, and award announcements will be made on December 17.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Health Reform Hits Main Street

Confused about how the new health reform law really works? This short, animated movie -- featuring the "YouToons" -- explains the problems with the current health care system, the changes that are happening now, and the big changes coming in 2014.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Doctors Care and Mtn Resource Center Pediatric Clinic Physicians Recognized by CCMU!

On Friday Anne Nagashima, MD, volunter provider with Doctors Care and Ken Kutalek, MD, with Mountain Resource Center Pediatric Clinic (Conifer) were both awarded "Physician of the Year” by the Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved.

Dr. Nagashima and Dr. Gary VanderArk, CCMU
Dr. Nagashima has logged more than 350 volunteer hours in the Doctors Care Clinic. In addition to providing expertise in female reproductive health issues, she seeks resources for her patients (prescription assistance, health maintenance screenings and mental health support) and resources for the staff by bringing in speakers on varied topics. In addition, she has acquired equipment for the clinic including a new exam table, colposcope and ultrasound machine. 


Dr. Ken Kutalek
Dr. Kutalek owns the Evergreen/Conifer Pediatric practices and has been caring for children and teens in the Evergreen/Conifer area for 25 years. In January 2009 Dr. Kutalek partnered with Mountain Resource Center to start a clinic funded by The Colorado Trust in order to realize his dream of being able to give all children top quality medical care regardless of income or insurance status. Dr. Ken, as he likes to be called, devotes all of his waking hours to running both his regular practice and the MRC Pediatric Clinic.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Grantwriting Service Available to Community-Funded Safety Net Clinics!

As part of the Colorado Rural Health Center’s continuing commitment to safeguard and expand rural healthcare, they provide a grant writing service, GROW (Grants: Research, Opportunities & Writing) available to individuals, groups, organizations, and communities. The GROW service’s overall goal is to provide grant writing resources to help ensure that comprehensive, affordable, high quality healthcare services are available at the local level in the state of Colorado. This service is available to all ClinicNET affiliated clinics. For more information click here.