Health centers and their networks are experiencing a growing need to make a myriad of decisions around managing and obtaining value from data, such as minimizing cost and complexity, managing risk, and ensuring adherence to regulations and legal requirements. As organizations mature in their data science teams and projects, formal mechanisms are needed to oversee these analytic processes. These mechanisms are referred to as data governance, which is the decision making authority over data-related matters. Data governance becomes more complex as more organizations participate, especially among diverse stakeholders. A data governance framework for example may need to account for the needs of health plans, which are different than a health care provider. New use cases, including public health, population health, and research are also built into and expanded within a governance framework. While data governance exists in single health care organizations and integrated delivery networks, data governance requirements become more complex as information exchange grows beyond state lines and incorporates new types of health care organizations. As health information sharing becomes more common due to federal legislation and health care reform, data governance models must be adopted and should be flexible to adapt to these changes. Although health centers and networks belonging to the same enterprise, or are closely affiliated, generally agree on data governance, the primary challenge in their governance framework is how to place the needs of the data/information exchange and sharing above tangent or unrelated interests of each externally participating organization. In this session, attendees will be able to explain the concept of data governance and identify nuances such as organizational structures for managing data, rules and policies, data decision rights, methods for accountability, and methods enforcement for data-related processes.

Keynote: Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP,  National Coordinator for Health, Information Technology, US Department of Health and Human Services Panel Discussion: Emerging Federal Agency Efforts in Technology and Data for Health Centers Health centers are increasingly being recognized not just as the US healthcare safety net, but also as sources of innovation in health IT, patient engagement and cultural competency, and as leaders in the dual challenges of addressing social drivers of health (SDOH) and health inequities. Federal agencies are working rapidly to modernize legacy reporting programs, creating programs to help improve the delivery of care through the effective use of health IT and by improving standards for technology and data.  This session features federal officials whose agencies are engaged in working with health centers to address data and technology challenges, and whose programs and scope affect health centers on a daily basis. These speakers will discuss how their agencies hope to address data quality and health IT product challenges with health centers. NACHC welcomes federal leadership from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Health Resources and Services Administration to discuss data and reporting system modernization among other topics.

This session will address the importance of a positive, trusting CEO/CFO relationship. In this session, health center executives will identify necessary components of this relationship and how this relationship is essential to the overall health of an organization. They will also share their personal experience in how this relationship moved their health center, G.A. Carmichael Family Health Center, from a negative cash flow balance, struggling to pay bills and meet payroll to having 1.2 million in the bank and 72 days cash on hand.

Driven by an influx of infrastructure support funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, Neighborcare determined that developing an organizational skill in project and change management would be critical to the effective utilization of the funds. The project management team was created to drive action and accountability from leadership, ensure thorough implementations, create capacity and reduce burnout, build inclusive staff and patient engagement-- with the overall goal of supporting patient care. Neighborcare built a governance structure to include leaders from around the organization to promote a coordinated prioritization of the projects in the organization, which served to unite the leadership team with a collective responsibility. To ensure successful adoption and coordination, a standard framework and common understanding of a project, the roles and responsibilities and the tools and processes were adopted. A dedicated change management framework was applied to introduce and sustain the change, building and utilizing the same tools which would be provided. The insights gained from applying project management organization and framework within a healthcare setting are described, which will inform the benefits realized and challenges encountered in adopting a centralized project management team.