California Health Care Improvement Projects (CHIPs)

California Health Care Improvement Projects (CHIPs) are designed by CHCF Health Care Leadership Program participants with the goal of addressing meaningful challenges or opportunities in health care.
Browse CHIPs to leverage the work of CHCF alumni and find opportunities to collaborate in order to improve health for Californians.
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Representation and Inclusion in a Community Health Center
Suzanne Eidson-TonI knew I wanted to improve diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at CommuniCare Health Centers (CCHC) shortly after I became CMO. I have been passionately committed to cultural humility and DEI efforts throughout my career, and I brought this passion with me when I joined CCHC. This particular project is a piece of a larger effort at CCHC, in which I am participating with a team of colleagues, to improve DEI at CCHC. Initially, I focused on increasing the diversity of our primary care providers, but I quickly realized that representation without true inclusion is not sufficient to improve equity. I had recently participated in a microaggression training at UC Davis HEALTH, led by Dr. Kupiri Ackerman-Barger in the School of Nursing, and it became clear that this could be useful training at CCHC as well. For my CHIP, colleagues I recruited and I adapted her workshop regarding addressing microaggressions in the academic health environment to be appropriate for the community health setting. The goal of the project was to increase inclusion at CCHC by helping everyone at all levels understand microaggressions and how to address them to support each other in feeling included and respected as valuable members of our teams—to ultimately increase the sense of belonging for all.
June 1, 2022View/Download PDF
Voting is Health: Increasing Civic Engagement Through Health Care Delivery Systems
Manisha SharmaIf voting is a sign of a healthy democracy, we are in need of serious interventions. Voting is a health “thing”. It is the one power citizens have a right to holding democracy accountable. It ensures a right to a healthier life for people and their loved ones. The impact of voting and political decisions touch every part of our daily life, from safety to housing, education, and ultimately, our health. Voting sends a signal of support or dissent for policies that ultimately shape the social determinants of health. Social determinants subsequently influence who votes and who does not. As a physician, we see the bodily impact of inequities that bad policy and law shape everyday within our clinical and healthcare settings. The goal of this project is to operationalize voting program interventions to increase voter participation within and throughout healthcare organizations, especially those who are “othered” and disenfranchised in the voting process.
June 1, 2022View/Download PDF
Hail underdogs! (My commitment to gender equality in healthcare leadership)
Priti GolechhaAs a woman leader, I felt lonely. Other leaders looked nothing like me and I did not know if I belonged. Moreover, I was not alone; women leaders all across the United States felt this way. Of course, I decided to do something about it and founded an organization ‘PWL’ where women physician leaders have a safe space, a community to be authentically themselves as healthcare leaders. Our ultimate goal is to get 50-50 gender equity in healthcare leadership through advocacy work and empowerment of women physicians.
June 1, 2022View/Download PDF
Building a System of Care Between Prison and Community Health Systems
Shira ShavitPeople returning from incarceration face a myriad of health inequities, including increased emergency department utilization, hospitalization and death. In the first 2 weeks post release, people are 12 times more likely to die than their community counterparts from health conditions that could be treated in the primary care setting (including SUD, cardiovascular disease, mental illness and cancer).
Transitions Clinic Network has 21 affiliated FQHCs in 14 counties across California that have special programs to care for people returning from incarceration. However, no organized system of care coordination exists between state prisons and primary care systems. This CHIP project aimed to leverage the TCN network and existing relationships with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to create an organized system of continuity of care between state prison and community health systems.
By late spring 2020, COVID-19 was spreading like wildfire across state prisons due to congregate housing and cramped conditions. By fall of 2020, incarcerated people were 5 times more likely to contract COVID. Under community pressure, California state prison officials sought to release tens of thousands of people early to slow the spread of COVID-19 necessitating the immediate creation of care coordination systems.
June 1, 2022View/Download PDF
Meeting Overwhelming COVID-19 Testing Need in Marginalized Communities in Los Angeles County
Clemens HongMarginalized communities were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with increased cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. As the County COVID-19 testing lead, I worked to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 testing in marginalized communities across Los Angeles County. We partnered with the State, Cities and private partners to expand countywide testing capacity, used data to allocate COVID-19 community testing resources to the most marginalized and impacted communities, engaged trusted messengers to get accurate information out to these populations, and engaged our expert community-based organizations and churches to perform outreach, navigation, and testing. Through this effort we reduced disparities in COVID-19 testing access between high and low risk communities by Health People Index indicator through the course of the pandemic.
June 1, 2022View/Download PDF
Provider Accountability for Clinical Performance Metrics by Race
Kevin SmithWhile it’s clear that racism and not race has been determined the driver for racial healthcare disparities, it can be frustrating and feel merely theoretical for providers to realize impactful mitigating efforts. My plan is to provide Provider Scorecards reflecting individualized performance metrics stratified by race as a reminder of provider onus regarding health disparities and alerting them to disparities they may unintentionally perpetuate. The goal would be to create a tangible monitor for unconscious bias.
June 1, 2022View/Download PDF
Promotional Ladder for Ambulatory Care Medical Assistants at Stanford Health Care
Karen JazminI wanted to encourage professional growth, increase operational contributions, and improve staff retention for the medical assistants in ambulatory care across the organization. This project was personally important to me because 90% (525 out of 584) of the medical assistants in Stanford Health Care are women and women of color. The goal of the project was to develop a fair, realistic, and inclusive promotional ladder to incentivize medical assistants in the ambulatory care setting at Stanford Health Care.
June 1, 2022View/Download PDF