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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Health Information Technology and Quality
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Colorado Community Managed Care Network: Hiring Veterans to Help Health Centers with Health IT

November Health IT Grantee Spotlight

Colorado Community Managed Care Network, a health center-controlled network who governing members include 12 of the State's 17 HRSA-supported health centers, has successfully achieved meaningful use – thanks in no small part to a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Francisco Perez.

Perez joined CCMCN a year ago, bringing with him experience and skills rooted in his service in military satellite communications. After the Air Force, Perez earned a college degree and, through the Colorado Office of Veterans Education & Training, became certified in IT systems. 

He joined the Network as a systems analyst with limited knowledge of health centers. He quickly saw that health centers and their Colorado network is mission-driven and focused on the public welfare. His military training and skills, he said, are directly relevant to his day-to-day work. The Network clearly agrees: he has already been promoted to team lead for the CCMCN help desk and contributed to the organization's successful attestation to meaningful use of the electronic health record.

Today, Perez' responsibilities include:

  • help desk and customer service
  • IT system analysis
  • EHR analysis
  • vendor liaison
  • system administrator
  • team lead

Military Skills and the Safety Net

In addition to its mission focus, the military provides extensive training in teamwork, effective communication, and project planning and management – skills that are as essential in the demanding, fast-paced Health IT environment as they are on the battlefield. 

Every day at the Network is different from the last, according to Perez, who says:  “ I like that once again I am a part of a mission-focused team, where working together is critical for overcoming challenges and ensuring our providers’ health IT needs are met in order to provide high quality patient care.”  

In his year with the Network, Perez has leveraged his military skills and training to meet the challenge of new responsibilities.

 

Using Veteran's skills within a health henter: Sense of mission, Customer Service, Overcoming challenges with limited resources, project manager, team work, respect for authority and mentors.
 

About the Grantee

Since 1994, Colorado Community Managed Care Network has provided efficient, effective and accountable systems of care across the State. 

In 2007, HRSA awarded CCMCN a Health IT Innovations grant to improve immunization outcomes using existing data from the Colorado Associated Community Health Information Enterprise (CACHIE) program to strengthen established immunization activities and improve health center patient health outcomes.

CACHIE, a Health IT program within CCMCN, supports health centers and their community partners in improving the quality of care and health outcomes through data-driven quality improvement processes. 

Through the Health IT Innovations grant, the program was able to help approximately 96,000 health center patients and to guild a clinical data warehouse that will facilitate future quality improvement projects. 

Contact: Dan Tuteur, executive director, Colorado Community Managed Care Network