Ready, Set, Go! Catalyzing Community Health Worker Programs for Healthcare Organizations

The National Committee of Quality Assurance (NCQA) and National Urban League (NUL) present this session to highlight the importance of community health workers and how to effectively incorporate them into our health care organizations. In this presentation, we aim to address potential solutions to the common barriers we see with the incorporation of community health workers (CHW) in health care organizations. In order to properly address key problem areas in CHW programs, NCQA and NUL have convened multiple meetings with a steering committee comprised of stakeholders, including CHWs, community partners, patients, HCOs, and other sectors to highlight common issues and identify solutions for the integration of CHWs in organizations. Results of the steering committee highlighted three main elements that need to be addressed for a successful CHW program: Framing, Implementation, and Sustainability. This session will highlight best practices organizations should take into consideration centered around these three elements when incorporating community health workers, how to best equip community health workers for career success, and to inform healthcare organizations of community health workers’ roles, responsibilities, and needs.