Resources | Healthier Washington Collaboration Portal

Communication Skills for Clinicians

Research through a National Institutes of Health grant proved that “communication skills for serious illness are learnable.” VitalTalk is a nationally known Seattle 501(c)(3) that disseminates that research. VitalTalk states, “We believe every clinician can become a better communicator.”

Community Health Workers - core components of effectiveness

Community health workers are a crucial resource for healthcare transformation. Take a look at a new article from the NEJM Catalyst series.

Community Priorities in Women, Gender, and Maternal Health

From the Issue Brief (April 2023) There is growing political interest in preserving, restoring, and extending Medicaid coverage for services and supports for women, gender, and maternal health. As federal and state policymakers consider opportunities to improve outcomes, they have been exploring a myriad of options, including community-based models of care, such as use of doulas and midwives, extension of postpartum care to 12-months of coverage, and access to sexual and reproductive health services.

COVID-19 and Chronic Pain Management

New Opioid Pain Management Guide Recommends Telehealth Patient Care Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, primary care physicians should provide opioid therapy for their patients through telehealth visits using two-way video such as Skype or FaceTime, or by telephone, according to a new guide issued by the AHRQ-funded Six Building Blocks program.

COVID-19 Healthcare Provider Resources and Recommendations

Washington State Department of Health's Healthcare Provider Resources & Recommendations in response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak (COVID-19)

COVID-19 Support Groups for Healthcare Professionals

NAMI Eastside is partnering with Sound Solutions to facilitate virtual COVID-19 Support Groups for healthcare professionals. Groups are open to all healthcare professionals. Facilitators are licensed therapeutic staff at Sound Solutions in the State of Washington. The groups' focus is the shared experience of those in the medical community providing healthcare during COVID-19 and the challenges created by this experience.

Defining a Strategy for Value-based Contracting

This workbook was designed to assist BHAs in becoming familiar with elements of VBP, value-based payments, and provide tools to help with these transformation efforts. Ideally, the agency leadership team will have reviewed the Value-Based Payment Practice Transformation Planning Guide developed in partnership with the Healthier Washington Practice Transformation Support Hub, National Council for Behavioral Health, and the Washington Council for Behavioral Health and will have assembled a VBP/transformation team.

Driver Diagram

Driver Diagram A driver diagram is a visual display of a team’s theory of what “drives,” or contributes to, the achievement of a project aim. This clear picture of a team’s shared view is a useful tool for communicating to a range of stakeholders where a team is testing and working.

Education in Palliative and End of Life Care, EPEC

Education in Palliative and End of Life Care, EPEC, is an online program designed to train physicians on the essential clinical competencies required to provide quality end-of-life care. A handbook and video version of the training are both available, as well as slide sets on many palliative care topics. Continuing Medical Education (CME) available.

Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes Toolkit

Integrating ePROs into Care Delivery A new toolkit funded by AHRQ’s Digital Healthcare Research Program is available to help healthcare systems integrate electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePROs) into care delivery. The ePROs in Clinical Care toolkit provides evidence-based guidelines and strategies for the use of PROs that are collected electronically, rather than through traditional pen-and-paper methods. The toolkit is organized around three core topic areas where changes may be needed across the health systems: governance, integration and reporting.

End of Life Palliative Education Resource Center

The End of Life Palliative Education Resource Center (EPERC), shares educational resource material among the community of health professional educators involved in palliative care education. Its series of fact sheets provide concise, practical, peer-reviewed, and evidence-based summaries on key topics important to clinicians and trainees caring for patients facing life-limiting illnesses. Fast Facts are designed to be easily accessible and clinically relevant monographs on palliative care topics.

End-of-Life Curriculum

End-of-Life Curriculum The End-of-Life Curriculum is 16-hour web-based curriculum, which incorporates basic material designed for use by physicians in any area of expertise. Developed by the Stanford Faculty Development Center, this eight-module curriculum is implemented as a PowerPoint slide presentation, with slides and teachers' notes on both the content and teaching process.

End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC)

End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC), an American Nurses Association project, is a national education initiative to improve end-of-life care in the United States.

Engagement in perinatal depression treatment: a qualitative study of barriers across and within racial/ethnic groups

Researchers examined care engagement factors across and within race/ethnicity to better understand previously observed racial/ethnic disparities in perinatal depression treatment.

Evidence-based outpatient miscarriage management

Onsite training: outpatient miscarriage management Onsite training offers evidence-based outpatient miscarriage management, and can help your facility offer evidence-based outpatient miscarriage management. Early pregnancy loss is common, occurring in approximately 15-20% of known pregnancies. It's often managed in the operating room despite evidence showing treatment in outpatient or emergency department settings can save time, cost, is equally safe, and is preferred by many patients.

Family Initiated Treatment (FIT)

HCA launches website about Family Initiated Treatment (FIT) The Health Care Authority (HCA) has information for communities and providers about family initiated treatment (FIT). The site includes information on outpatient FIT, inpatient FIT, and mental health information disclosures.

Financing That Rewards Better Health and Well-Being

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has prepared this brief based on a workshop in June 2021 on the need to transform the United States’ current model of health care financing – which rewards the volume of services provided – to a model that incentivizes integrated payment approaches that are person-centered and holistic in advancing individual, community, and population health.

Food Lifeline and Sea Mar Community Health Centers

About Food Lifeline and Sea Mar Community Health Centers Founded in 1979, Food Lifeline is part of the national “Feeding America” network that assists in collecting food that would otherwise go to waste to provide meals to thousands of people across Western Washington. Food Lifeline rescues millions of pounds of this surplus food from farmers, manufacturers, grocery stores, and restaurants and focuses on a long term solution to hunger.

Food Lifeline and Sea Mar Community Health Centers, Case example

Health Equity Principles for Leaders

For communities and their residents to recover fully and fairly from the COVID-19 pandemic, state and local leaders should consider the health equity principles in this resource in designing and implementing their responses. These principles are not a detailed public health guide for responding to the pandemic or reopening the economy, but rather a compass that continually points leaders toward an equitable and lasting recovery.