Partnerships


State Primary Care Offices

The Iowa and Nebraska Primary Care Offices (PCOs) are important partners for IA/NEPCA and for our member health centers. They provide critical assistance in identifying areas of need, applying for shortage designations, and recruitment and retention of providers through facilitation of National Health Service Corps programs. The PCO directors sit on the IA/NEPCA Board of Directors.

Iowa Primary Care Office
Nebraska Office of Rural Health-Primary Care Office
 

Iowa Collaborative Safety Net Provider Network

Through a unique partnership created through the Iowa Legislature in 2005, Iowa’s health care safety net providers have united to identify common unmet needs that can be addressed cooperatively. The Iowa Collaborative Safety Net Provider Network (Network) was originally comprised of Community Health Centers, Free Clinics, and Rural Health Clinics, but has grown tremendously in the past few years to include Family Planning Agencies, Local Boards of Health, and Maternal/Child Health Centers, among other safety net providers. Monetary awards for providers have been given to a variety of providers since the inception of the Network. Additionally, access to pharmaceuticals, specialty care, and health professional recruitment were identified as the first three areas for collaboration. Advancing the medical home was most recently added as a priority area.

In fiscal year 2008 (FY08), funding was provided through the legislature for three grants to local boards of public health and three grants to maternal/child health centers to work toward building capacity to establish medical homes for patients and were awarded through the Network. In the same year, the Network funded four organizations to pilot specialty care projects. Funding continued in FY09 for these grantees. The Network is beginning to look at data and establishing best practices while continuing grantee support and focus on the three main areas of interest. By continuing funding to the same grantees in FY09, the Network has allowed for communities across Iowa to elevate the level of awareness and commitment to medical homes and increased access to needed services for underserved populations.

For more information about the Network, click here.


Iowa Mission of Mercy

Staff at the IA/NEPCA have been contracted to perform administrative, grant writing, volunteer coordination, and wrap-up and evaluation for the Iowa Mission of Mercy (Iowa MOM) for the past two years. The Iowa MOM is best described as a multi-day event where free oral health services are provided by volunteer dentists, medical personal, and community members. In 2008, over 1,200 patients were provided more than $600,000 in free care in Waterloo. In September 2009, nearly 1,600 patients were provided $843,000 in free services at the Iowa Speedway in Newton.

Click here for more information about Iowa MOM. 
 

Reach Out and Read

Reach Out and Read (ROR) is a national nonprofit organization that promotes early literacy by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud in pediatric exam rooms across the nation. ROR targets low income families so community health centers are a natural fit with the program’s intent. Most of our member health centers in Iowa and Nebraska are ROR sites and have incorporated the program into well-child checks for young children.

IA/NEPCA is an active partner with the Reach Out and Read – Iowa Coalition and a senior staff serves as a member of the state Advisory Group. The ROR-Iowa Coalition issued a “CHC Challenge” two years ago in which additional support for book purchases was provided to Iowa CHCs newly enrolled in the program. The CHC Challenge resulted in many new CHC applicants and programs underway in Iowa. IA/NEPCA considers ROR-Iowa a key partnership and is pleased to promote this evidence-based model to address literacy issues with our target populations.

To learn more about Reach Out and Read, click here.
 

Upper Midwest Public Health Training Consortium

The Upper Midwest Public Health Training Center (UMPHTC) provides education and training on the latest public health techniques and practices for professionals and students in the public health field in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. The UMPHTC serves the region through the identification of areas of need in public health workforce capacity, and through the development of curriculum and methodologies that will meet those needs, strengthening the competencies and capabilities of public health practitioners, students and faculty. Promoting partnership and collaboration, this training center maximizes the most efficient use of resources for public health workforce development.


Iowa Health Law

Iowa Legal Aid’s Health and Law Project is an innovative project which seeks to bring together medicine and law to improve low-income Iowans’ lives by addressing the legal problems that affect their health. Presently, the project is working with medical facilities in four areas of the state – Council Bluffs, Des Moines, Ottumwa, and Sioux City. Four Iowa Community Health Centers currently partner with Iowa Legal Aid to deliver the program: Council Bluffs Community Health Center, Primary Health Care, Inc. (Des Moines and Marshalltown), River Hills Community Health Center (Ottumwa and Richland), and Siouxland Community Health Center (Sioux City).

The project's primary goals are to:

For additional information about the program, click here


Iowa Community Health Center Tobacco Cessation Program

In late 2007, the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) awarded a contract to the Iowa/Nebraska Primary Care Association and its member health centers to provide free tobacco cessation services to underserved Iowans. Data suggests that people with less education, a lower income, and a minority status are more likely to be tobacco users. The 13 Community Health Centers (CHCs) in Iowa that offer the program see a large portion of these underserved populations; therefore, the partnership provides a unique opportunity for the state’s investment in tobacco cessation to be directed where care is needed most in order for the greatest change to be realized.

Research has suggested receiving both counseling and pharmacotherapy yields the highest rates of successful cessation. Therefore, this program requires that patients receive both components. Participants enrolled in the program are eligible for 12 weeks of both of the following:

For additional information about the program, please click here.

FY09 Annual Report

Tobacco Cessation Newsletters


Clinical Translation Science Award (CTSA), University of Iowa

To improve human health and wellness, new scientific discoveries must be make their way (or be “translated”) from laboratories into real people’s lives. Clinical translational science is the study of how this process happens. National Institute of Health (NIH) funded CTSA brings together research investigators, community clinicians, clinical practices, networks, professional societies, and industry to improve human health. They specialize in transforming the efficiency and quality with which clinical and translational research emerge to make real differences in people’s lives. IA/NEPCA and four member health centers (Community Health Care, Inc. – Davenport; Primary Health Care, Inc. – Des Moines; Peoples Community Health Clinic – Waterloo; and Siouxland Community Health Center – Sioux City) have teamed up with The University of Iowa on projects in the chronic disease arena, focusing on the areas of diabetes and asthma, particularly in self-management and innovative patient education.


Nebraska Educational Alliance for Public Health Impact

The Nebraska Educational Alliance for Public Health Impact (NEAPHI) is a collaborative partnership of over 30 academic and practice organizations focused on public health workforce training and education.