The Telehealth Improvement Community Fund (TICF) was a seven-month initiative funded by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) and managed by the Center for Care Innovations (CCI). The program aimed to help community health centers and other safety-net health centers in California increase video telehealth usage. TICF included a diverse cohort of 27 organizations across California and was part of CHCF’s Tipping Point for Telehealth Initiative, launched during the pandemic, to help Federally Qualified Health Centers ramp up their digital capabilities.

Key Features

• Telehealth improvement projects. Each organization developed a project focused on increasing video visit uptake by adopting one high-leverage change from CCI’s Framework for Accessible Video Visits.
• Resource access. Grantees accessed CCI’s Virtual Learning Hub, which included an e-learning series, five open webinars, and five peer expert office hour sessions.
• Flexible format. Participation in activities was optional, with minimal reporting requirements to reduce grantee burden.

Evaluation Results

• High engagement. Grantees reported substantial progress in installing new hardware and software, implementing new workflows, and staff training. Webinars were particularly well attended, and satisfaction with TICF resources was high.
• Telehealth utilization. Utilization rates held steady throughout the initiative.
• Satisfaction and flexibility. Nearly all grantees appreciated the low-intensity and highly flexible format of the initiative, with many expressing a high likelihood of recommending TICF to their peers.

The Telehealth Improvement Community Fund demonstrated that community health centers can be highly engaged and achieve meaningful progress on an improvement project within a low-intensity and flexible initiative. This model shows promise for spreading best practices not only in telehealth but potentially in other areas of health care as well.