Organizational strategies to support community health center well-being

There are national movements to improve the quality of primary care for patients while protecting and promoting health worker well-being. The critical barrier to realizing these calls for action is that healthcare systems have struggled to effectively address health worker burnout and turnover, often utilizing low-yield

tactics because of the perceived cost of system level changes. Work needs to be done to address the fundamental problem – the healthcare working environment. In this proposal, we aim to address the work environment of federally qualified health centers (FQHC) where critically important care is given to

underserved populations who often have multiple chronic conditions. These centers struggle with employee retention, which leads to healthcare access and quality challenges for underserved patients. We propose a multi-method, multi-level investigation of FQHCs to evaluate the safety, health and well-being needs of their

workforce to encourage retention. We will partner with the Colorado Community Health Network (CCHN) – all Colorado (CO) FQHCs are members and receive support from them – as well as CO practice-based research networks to recruit FQHCs and their staff to participate. Our project is guided by a vision for a FQHC workforce

that is thriving in an environment that fosters their well-being. Aim 1: Determine how FQHCs can utilize leadership practices to design work that increases the employee value proposition for existing and future FQHC staff. Aim 2: Evaluate FQHC primary care workforce well-being using the NIOSH Worker Well-being

Questionnaire (WellBQ) and assess its relationship to turnover intentions. We address AHRQ’s call to understand approaches to support, develop, retain, and grow the primary care workforce and further understand and improve their well-being. In the short-term, we will share results and resources with CO

FQHCs for the purpose of helping them identify strengths and opportunities in the way they are supporting their workforce’s well-being. Our aim is to use our findings to begin to work towards shifting the current clinical practice of FQHC’s leadership and management of provider and staff well-being towards a systems-based

approach, informed by multi-method and multi-level assessment strategies.