New and Noteworthy

 
Learning Collaboratives – a Year in Review 

Capital Link is wrapping up a successful first round of Learning Collaboratives, which launched earlier this year. Facilitated by Capital Link and conducted through a series of webinars and in-person meetings, our Collaboratives bring together teams from health centers with similar goals to take a deep dive into a particular topic area. Interactive sessions feature advice and best practices from industry experts as well as from health center staff who have experienced success. Our collaboratives are offered free of charge with support from HRSA.

What Is a Learning Collaborative?

Capital Link facilitated the Capital Projects: Planning, Financing, Completing Learning Collaborative, a seven-month program designed to assist health centers in anticipating the need for a capital project during the next one to five years. This Collaborative, which will be concluding in September, has provided participants with guidance and tools to successfully navigate the process of building or renovating facilities. The collaborative consists of approximately 60 participants from 19 health centers.

Key topics:

• Readiness and Planning: Organizational and Financial

• Planning: Evaluating Your Market and Determining Your Operating Model and Space Requirements

• Planning: Developing a Business Plan and Financial Forecast

• Design and Development: Assembling and Managing a Project Team

• Funding: Evaluating your Financing Options and Fundraising Plans

• Implementation: Managing a Project and Lessons learned

Capital Link also partnered with CSH (Corporation for Supportive Housing) to offer the Capital Expansion for Health and Housing Partnerships Learning Collaborative for health centers interested in expanding their health services in collaboration with housing facilities. The objective was to develop opportunities for health and housing providers to coordinate facility expansions to meet the needs of shared client populations. Nine health centers participated in the Collaborative, which was facilitated from February through May of this year.

Key topics:

• Benefits of Health and Housing Capital Expansion

• Types of Housing and Housing Markets

• Building Health and Housing Partnerships

• Capital Planning using Data and Metrics

• Financing Sources for Health and Housing

• Project Logistics

A second round of each of these Learning Collaboratives will be offered in 2019. We will host introductory webinars describing the goals and expected outcomes for each collaborative for health centers interested in participating. Stay tuned for our announcements.

We will also be offering a new Learning Collaborative in partnership with Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU) to share insights from Financial and Workforce Characteristics of High-Performing Health Centers, a report in the final stages of development and soon to be released. This Learning Collaborative will explore the connections between strong workforce practices and financial performance to determine how to generate optimal operational models at health centers.

For more information on our Learning Collaboratives, please contact Jonathan Chapman, Director of Community Health Center Advisory Services, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit our Learning Collaborative web page here.