|
January 6, 2022
What's New
HRSA-supported health centers are being recognized at the highest levels for their critical role in making health care more accessible and equitable. With this increased recognition have come big asks and lots of additional funding and new opportunities. Take a moment to check out these astonishing numbers—just a few highlights—and celebrate your hard work!
 |
- Awarded historic amounts of funding, including:
- Nearly $7.3 billion in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding.
- Over $5 billion in ongoing Health Center Program funding.
- Nearly $90 million in supplemental funding for hypertension (NHCI-HC).
- Over $48 million in new Primary Care HIV Prevention (PCHP) funding (plus more than $50 million in continuing PCHP funding).
- Over $5 million to expand services at school-based service sites (SBSS).
- Graduated BPHC REACH last month. Watch a video retrospective and check out this accomplishments two-pager. Through REACH, we:
- Conducted 6 pilots involving 100+ Project Officers and other staff.
- Increased cross-Bureau collaborations to transform how we fund and assist health centers.
- Established a Quality Improvement Fund and Challenge Grants to spur innovation and new evidence-based practices in health centers.
- Hired a Chief Data Officer, convened a Data Council and advisory committee, and launched the data community of practice. See all things data.
- Implemented our new organization design.
- Produced 140 qualitative reports, 30 presentations for the White House, and responded to hundreds of ad hoc data/information requests from the White House and federal partners.
- Completed 527 virtual Operational Site Visits and 1,427 Program Analysis and Recommendations (PAR) reviews.
-
230 BPHC employees received HRSA Honor and PHS Awards.
-
40+ staff met twice weekly for COVID-19 Incident Command briefings through June. Now ~80 staff attend weekly BPHC Command briefings.
- Distributed over 12.5 million free masks to 1,437 HRSA-supported health centers in partnership with DoD.
- Stood up HRSA’s COVID-19 Testing Supply Distribution Program, allowing all HRSA-supported health centers and Medicare-certified Rural Health Clinics to order free at-home self-tests for their patients and communities.
- Processed more than 1 million COVID-19 self-test kits to health centers nationwide.
- We also stood up a therapeutics supply program that will do the same for antiviral drugs, and invited over 200 health centers to participate in the initial phase of the program.
- Made ~100 updates to the COVID-19 survey, including several to improve users’ experience, and reviewed more than 30,000 comments for insights into the health center experience.
- Produced 30+ webcasts. On average, ~1,200 people attended each Today with Macrae and 315+ people attended each BPHC All-Hands.
- Developed more than 175 Frequently Asked Questions on funding opportunities, use of program funds, and program policy, and responded directly to thousands of health center inquiries from across the country.
-
25+ web workgroup members across the bureau reviewed and prepared 2000+ pages for the new BPHC website.
- Highlighted health centers’ critical work in ~140 health center stories.
-
32 staff joined the Future Influencer Community of Practice.
New Year, New BIR!
The BPHC Information and Resources (BIR) homepage has a new look and feel! We used metrics and stakeholder input to shape the new look. The redesigned page features Staff News, a rotating banner, and more!
The BIR intranet website contains important resources that you can use to do your job and stay updated on what’s happening in BPHC. Consider bookmarking the site (press the star at the end of the URL field) for easy access. You could even make it a tab on your browser homepage!
Have feedback on the new design, or can’t find something you used to regularly use? Send us a note.
2021 UDS Reporting is Underway!
Calendar year 2021 UDS reporting season is here. In Tuesday’s Digest, we shared resources for health centers that need assistance. Project Officers: Please encourage health centers to begin their reporting now and refer to those UDS resources to answer questions.
|
Work with BPHC Data? We Need Your Input!
If you use BPHC data, or supervise or lead a team that uses data, even tangentially, please complete this 10-15 minute anonymous survey by Monday, January 10.
Questions or comments about the survey? Contact David Spett.
Upcoming Newsletter Change for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday
Due to the federal holiday on Monday, January 17, the newsletter deadline is changed next week. Instead of noon on Friday, newsletter announcements must be approved in SharePoint by COB Thursday, January 13. We’ll hold submissions received after that deadline for the following issue.
Questions? Email the Digest mailbox.
|
In Memory of a Health Center Program Champion
We were saddened to learn of the recent passing of Bonnie Lefkowitz, a longtime champion of the Health Center Program. She joined what was then called the Bureau of Health Care Delivery and Assistance (later renamed the Bureau of Primary Health Care) in 1983, where she remained for 16 years, including 6 years as Associate Administrator for Data, Evaluation, Analysis, and Research. Following her retirement, she wrote a book based on interviews she conducted with dozens of health center leaders, Community Health Centers: A Movement and the People Who Made It Happen (Rutgers University Press, 2007). She will be truly missed.
Getting to Know: Emily Leonard
Meet Emily Leonard, Public Health Analyst, OPPD:
Most unusual job before coming to BPHC: Ran a small hotel by the beach.
Proudest accomplishment: Getting my master’s degree in public health.
Favorite personal mantra: I deserve good things.
The title of my autobiography would be: I Can’t Find My Car Keys
Learn more about Emily, and email BPHC Insider to submit your name for a future Getting to Know.
|
|
