Expanding Data Reporting Capacity of Free and Charitable Clinics: A Quality Improvement Project

In 2018, member clinics of the Virginia Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (VAFCC) provided over 235,500 visits to un/underinsured patients. A survey of VAFCC members found that only 67% report on clinical outcome measures and 56% do not collect social determinant of health (SDOH) data.

The purpose of this project was to determine if the provision of web-based technical assistance toolkits and peer mentoring improve quality and data reporting capacity of VAFCC member clinics.

Clinics that self-selected were provided with 16 weeks of customized interventions including SDOH Data Reporting Toolkit, CMS Quality Data Reporting Toolkit, Electronic Health Record Implementation Toolkit, and peer mentoring.

Post-implementation, 100% of participating clinics reported that the resources provided benefited their organizations and increased their capacity to report.

The provision of technical assistance, tangible resources, and customized peer mentoring can better equip Free and Charitable Clinics (FCCs) to tell the story of their patients' social barriers and clinical outcomes.

DNP prepared nurses working with vulnerable populations are positioned to assist FCCs in documenting their relevance in the safety net system. Enhancing the ability of FCCs to collect and report data will allow them to demonstrate the provision of high-quality care, despite limited resources.