CP43 - Health Centers and the All of Us Research Program: Innovation in workforce allocation during the response to COVID-19

Poster Type: Innovation

Category: Workforce

Issue or Challenge: Through the All of Us Research Program (AoURP) the NIH aims to enroll over one million individuals as a longitudinal cohort. Six Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) serve as AoURP enrollment centers, supported by a Central Coordination model designed by the MITRE Corporation.

The emergence and rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) posed complex challenges to the AoURP and FQHC research operations. On March 16, 2020, NIH announced a pause in in-person AoURP activities; this decision, and other impacts of COVID-19 on FQHCs and communities, exposed the need to transform the work environment, to allow non-clinical staff to telework.

Description of Innovation: The AoURP FQHCs, supported by MITRE, transformed the structure of their operations in innovative ways to adapt to the COVID-19 crisis. MITRE worked in partnership with the FQHCs to implement a structure for teams to transition to a telework environment, and to support FQHCs through the pause of in-person activities.

MITRE support adapted evidence-based elements of organizational success during a crisis including gathering adequate information to support decision making, the ability to pivot quickly and decisively, and acknowledgement of the human factors related to times of crises. To this end, as FQHC teams were re-orienting themselves to virtual workspaces, MITRE continually scanned the environment for issues that might affect the team and the FQHCs, particularly as new information was being delivered daily about COVID-19. MITRE leveraged many of the principles of disaster management and modified them to fit AoURP to create a stable environment for the FQHCs to position themselves for stability during the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, MITRE supported FQHCs by offering resources to leverage the activity pause as an opportunity to strengthen teams, instill new skills, and build capacity for success when normal activities resume.

Impact or Result: During the pause in in-person activities, FQHCs successfully implemented various work plans to provide their teams with alternative activities related to continuity of operations, as well as planning for when the program resumes in-person activities. As of this submission date, five teams have transitioned AoURP research staff to full or partial telework, and one team is repurposed to support COVID-19 response at their FQHC. Notably, within the six FQHCs, the innovative approach to reshaping work has resulted in no reduction in staff, either through furlough or lay-off of employees. Additional results/impact will be accumulated over the course of the pandemic and shared at the time of the NACHC conference, particularly as they relate to preparedness to resume normal operations.

Replicating this Innovation: The FQHCs’ rapid response to COVID-19 and application of the disaster cycle to the unique nature of the program can be used as a model for other longitudinal cohort studies that are reliant on face-to-face communication and interaction for enrollment and retention in the program. Both MITRE and the AoURP FQHCs developed a framework, tools and workflows that could be leveraged during the planning of future crisis responses for non-clinical research teams. Examples of these will be shared as part of the NACHC poster.

Author(s):

Daniela Macander, MPH, Health Centers and the All of Us Research Program: Innovation in workforce, The MITRE Corporation

Derek Inokuchi, MHS, The MITRE Corporation

Anya Coleman, PMP, CSM, SA, The MITRE Corporation,

Jessica Burke, MBA, Project Lead, The All of Us Research Program, The MITRE Corporation