About Roadmap

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Roadmap to Health Equity

How We Started

In 2017, Americares, the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (NAFC), Loyola University Chicago, and a consortium of stakeholders including state-level FCC associations and individual free and charitable clinics from across the country, launched Quality of Care in Free and Charitable Clinics: Roadmap to Health Equity (Roadmap).

Who Will Benefit?

Free & Charitable Clinics

Roadmap supports clinics as they use data to break down barriers to equitable care and leverage their internal systems and workflows to support the delivery of quality care.

Associations

Free and charitable clinic associations are critical partners in Roadmap – helping align state and national priorities to the Roadmap work.

Researchers

Lessons learned in Roadmap will help researchers and quality improvement leaders better support clinics in their journey to deliver high-quality equitable care.

Patients

Patients are at the core of Roadmap. We are capturing their experience using the Person-Centered Primary Care Measure to ensure their needs are being met.

A Data-Driven Solution

WHAT WE KNOW

We know that free and charitable clinics provide high-quality care. We also know that inequities within healthcare do exist. We know that if you can’t measure the care that is being provided, you cannot improve it. Until Roadmap to Health Equity, there has never been a nationwide method of collecting data to measure the quality of care provided by free and charitable clinics.

OUR SOLUTION

We developed a national data repository to capture quality measures and stratify them by demographics to identify and address inequity. By facilitating internal and external benchmarking, Roadmap supports clinics as they break down barriers to equitable care and shift internal systems and workflows to support the delivery of quality care.

“ONE OF THE ISSUES WE AS FREE CLINICS HAVE HAD IS THAT WE ARE UNABLE TO BENCHMARK OURSELVES AGAINST OTHER CLINCS…ROADMAP IS IMPORTANT TO ME BECAUSE I BELIEVE IT’S IMPORTANT FOR FREE CLINICS TO COLLECTIVELY SHOW THE QUALITY CARE THAT WE ALL PROVIDE.”

Clinical Quality Measures

• Blood pressure screening and follow-up
• Blood pressure control
• Documentation of current medications in medical record
• Diabetes: hemoglobin A1c testing
• Diabetes: hemoglobin A1c poor control
• Breast cancer screening
• Hypertension: improvement in blood pressure
• Influenza immunization
• Tobacco use: screening and cessation intervention
• BMI screening and follow-up plan
• Screening for depression and follow-up plan
• Cervical cancer screening
• Colorectal cancer screening
• Unhealthy alcohol use: screening and brief counseling
• Avoidance of antibiotic treatment in adults with acute bronchitis

Learn more about the data collected in Roadmap

Surrounded by Support

Roadmap partner clinics have access to a variety of live and on-demand educational tools as well as the opportunity to learn from their Roadmap peers across the country through ongoing quality improvement activities and peer learning webinars.

Person-Centered Primary Care Measure

Nothing demands our attention more in free and charitable clinic settings than listening to the patient voice. The person presenting for care is the most knowledgeable informant about aspects of care that matter most to them. Through Roadmap, clinics have access to the Person-Centered Primary Care Measure (PCPCM) tool – developed by the Larry Green Center to measure patient perception of high value primary care, The PCPCM recognizes that health care is a relationship not a commodity.

Learn more about this measure
Featured Clinic

Crossover Healthcare Ministry

Martin Zanin from Crossover Healthcare Ministry describes how this Roadmap initiative to bring free clinics together to measure health outcomes will help support quality health care and understand what it takes to achieve health equity. .

Meet the Participating Clinics

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can join Roadmap?

Roadmap is open to Free and Charitable Clinics in the U.S. At this time, clinics are being invited in phases but any interested clinic is encouraged to fill out the contact form. 

Is there a cost to participate?

At this time there is no cost to participate in Roadmap. Clinics may be asked to pay a nominal fee for the data repository in the future.

How does this help my clinic?

Data is the first step to understanding inequities within your patient population. Disaggregating by sociodemographic characteristics can help identify areas of care that may need improvement, or demonstrate where your clinic excels! Additionally, the data from Roadmap is crucial for quality improvement activities, to track progress in clinical goals and programming, and for reporting to donors and partners. Being able to show that you are providing quality care, often on par with or surpassing private clinics, is a great way to tell your story to donors.

What are the data requirements for Roadmap?

Roadmap clinics are required to submit data on three of our Roadmap indicators once a year. The three indicators include our one required indicator for blood pressure, as well as two of your choices from our 15 measures total. We use deidentified patient data, with specific sociodemographic characteristics included, for each measure with a minimum of 70 patients preferred. 

When is the data submission for Roadmap?

The data submission period is annual from January 1st to March 31st, during which you report on data from the previous calendar year. 

How much time does this take?

The time commitment for roadmap is variable, depending on the data processes of your clinic currently.  On average for those with EMR systems, the process takes 3-4 hours the first time. Each subsequent year is easier.  

Is there an EMR system requirement?

All EHR systems are welcome! The majority of Roadmap clinics use Athena, so we have some Athena specific resources available. There are plans to add guides for other EHRs in the future to make the data submission process as smooth as possible for everyone.  

Data isn’t my favorite thing, will I have help with the data submission?

Roadmap staff and fellow Roadmap members are always available for help, whether through group training calls, troubleshooting office hours, or even one-on-one consulting. Additionally, our website Clinic Resources page includes a library of resources to help with the data submission process. We offer technical guides, recorded webinars, and excel templates to help make the process as easy as possible for you and your staff.

Data is my favorite thing! What information will I be able to see?


Within the Roadmap data repository, VTOC, you have access to your own clinic reports as well as a benchmark report that compares your clinic to all the other clinics participating in Roadmap across the country – with filters to allow you to compare clinics of similar operating budget or size. New in 2024, we’ll be offering Excel templates to help you generate tables and graphs ready for donor reports or presentations.  Finally, you will be able to compare against national benchmarks, including Healthy People 2030, national community health centers data, and Medicaid HMO data, to see how you compare nationally. Additional updates are being made to our data repository, so stay tuned!

Who is already participating in Roadmap?

Roadmap currently consists of over 50 Free and Charitable Clinics spanning 23 states. We also partner with state associations. 

How do I join?

Email roadmap@americares.org for more information.  

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