CapTech Consulting skilled volunteers assisted Community Free Clinic with a technology plan to increase efficiency and better serve their constituents.
G.A.I.N. – Powered by Lowe’s
Community Free Clinic provides primary care, chronic disease management, an in-house lab, specialist care and referrals, and behavioral health to low-income uninsured adults of Cabarrus County. In partnership with medical providers and nonprofit organizations throughout Cabarrus County, Community Free Clinic’s mission is to increase access to healthcare. By treating uninsured low-income adults, the Community Free Clinic helps to improve long term patient health outcomes and reduce non-emergency room visits to the Emergency Department.
Community Free Clinic is a recipient of Apparo’s G.A.I.N. (Growth, Agility, and Innovation for Nonprofits) Grant Program. G.A.I.N provides nonprofit participants with the tools, training, and other support they need to implement and sustain their technology and process improvements. G.A.I.N. delivers a one-year journey of technology and process improvement to a cohort of nonprofits to help them overcome their technological challenges and amplify their nonprofit impact. The G.A.I.N. program is generously sponsored by Lowe’s.
Community Free Clinic needed assistance developing a technology plan and processes.
Community Free Clinic came to Apparo for assistance with building efficiency around data collection, communication with patients and other health providers, as well as reporting. With various systems in place, it was difficult to find patient information and documents. Staff reported using up to 3-4 hours a week searching for data. Most referrals were done via phone or written communication, which was time-consuming as well as difficult to track. And with the various systems used, gathering data for reporting was inefficient.
Apparo partnered Community Free Clinic with volunteer mentors, Bill Hammelman (CCP Tech) & Josh Glassberg (Duke Energy), and a team of skilled volunteers from CapTech Consulting through the G.A.I.N. program. The volunteer team and Apparo team met to help Community Free Clinic discuss ways to document and improve their nonprofit technology processes. Penny Aronson, Deputy Executive Director of Community Free Clinic, states, “having Josh and Bill has been an amazing resource. I’m going to miss them when this is over. I love the collaboration and help. I don’t have to figure out everything IT on my own.”
Community Free Clinic implements technology tools to ease their workload and allow time to grow their mission.
After the project, Community Free Clinic has implemented some of the technology applications outlined in their technology plan. They began using Sharepoint to store their documents, which has created an easy process to find and share information. The staff no longer spends several hours a week looking for information, which is a yearly savings of 832 hours. It’s easier to collaborate on documents without the added step of emailing files back and forth; and using Sharepoint also gives added security for their data.
The technology plan will allow Community Free Clinic to disengage with their Managed Service Provider, saving them an estimated $100 a month. Now that they have efficient and effective hardware and software, they will spend less time and money updating and repairing systems.
Skilled volunteers help Community Free Clinic obtain an Electronic Medical Record licensing enabling them to expand their services
Since Community Free Clinic partners with a local hospital system, they have been working to get an Electronic Medical Record license for years without much movement. Apparo volunteers stepped in and got the ball rolling on this process. They were able to secure an Epic license starting this June. Atrium Health and the Cannon Foundation Cabarrus Fund will subsidize their license fees for 3 years. With the increase in efficiency and future plans to implement Epic, CFC sees a very real path to expand their services, especially in the dental health and mental health fields.
By being able to refer patients to a provider through a click of a button in Epic, more health providers in the area will become aware of Community Free Clinic. Penny shares, “I know working with Epic, we’ll be able to do a lot more referrals which will increase our reach. Providers have said they want to push a button to refer.” This increase in awareness and reach will assist in gaining more providers for dental and mental health care, expanding the services available to those who need it most.
With better reporting, Community Free Clinic will be able to more accurately calculate the number of patients served, referred and the amount of money saved from unnecessary Emergency Room visits. This data will be invaluable to for grant applications and generating funding resources. Penny shared, “This process is completely priceless. Applying for grants we always quantify things, but what you’ve been able to give us is strategic for the future. We appreciate that.”
The CapTech volunteers shared their experience
“It’s been an absolute pleasure. One of the reasons I’ve loved working with Aparo is the organizations that I work with have been based in the Charlotte area. I love being able to have the onsite visit to meet you in person and see the impact that you’re having in the community. I am excited that we’ve been able to give you the assistance you need with the partnership with Apparo. I look forward to continue to work with CFC and Apparo.” – Danielle Okun
“It was an absolute pleasure working with Penny—her professionalism and genuine kindness made every interaction both productive and delightful. I hope that the insights we shared provided valuable input to help her continue doing an amazing job serving her community.” – Hababo Jima
