COVID-19 Just-in-Time ECHO for Primary Care is an ECHO Colorado learning series that was created to provide up-to-the-minute information about the pandemic for the state’s primary care providers. On Monday, March 8, 2021 the series was delivered for the 100th time – most ECHO learning series consist of six to eight sessions – to the 100 providers who attend every Monday and Wednesday morning at 7:00 AM.

ECHO Colorado’s COVID-19 series started on March 27, 2020 to address the urgent information needs of providers in the primary care setting and this was made possible through a partnership between the University of Colorado School of Medicine and University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. A research team and a multi-disciplinary task force consisting of eight physicians, two pharmacists, a program director and a medical epidemiologist has driven the development of topics and content for each session. Throughout the series, experts from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and other state and local agencies have provided information on epidemiology, medication management, vaccine development and deployment, testing, primary care health policy, telemedicine, bioethics and more.

“The ability to collaborate remotely with health care professionals from a variety of backgrounds is really important to disseminating the right information and ensuring that Coloradans are getting the best care,” said Governor Jared Polis about COVID-19 Just-in-Time for Primary Care.

In the next phase of ECHO Colorado’s COVID-19 education series the focus will shift to post-COVID care. COVID Care in the Ambulatory Setting, beginning Monday, April 5, will focus on providing primary care physicians with the necessary practice knowledge to care for Coloradans who develop COVID or face post COVID complications. Sessions will continue to provide high level epidemiology updates, vaccination information, medication management development and policy updates with an added focus on the management of COVID patients in the outpatient setting, post discharge care and management of long-term complications.

“ECHO Colorado has spent the last year working intensely to meet the educational and practice needs of providers and health care systems facing the challenges of the COVID pandemic,” said John “Fred” Thomas, Executive Director of ECHO Colorado. “As the pandemic continues to evolve, the needs of the medical community have shifted, and ECHO’s COVID response is advancing to meet these needs.”

COVID Care in the Ambulatory Setting begins Monday, April 5. For information and to register click here.

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ECHO Colorado has joined a nationwide training program to help keep COVID-19 from spreading in Colorado nursing homes and to prepare and equip staff so that they can better protect residents and themselves. This is an essential nationwide initiative in the fight against COVID-19.

The program is part of the National Nursing Home COVID-19 Action Network supported by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in collaboration with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and Project ECHO. ECHO Colorado is participating in the Network as an official Training Center for nursing homes.

This program has six goals:

• Keep the virus from entering nursing homes
• Find out early if residents and staff have been infected
• Prevent the spread of the virus to staff, residents and visitors
• Provide safe and appropriate care to residents with mild and asymptomatic cases
• Ensure staff have the knowledge, skills and confidence to implement best-practice safety measures to protect residents and themselves
• Reduce social isolation for residents, families and staff

“We are thrilled to partner with nursing home providers in Colorado to create a community that can learn together and learn from one another in combatting COVID-19,” said Cari Levy, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Health Care Policy and Research at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; and Section Chief of Palliative Medicine and Director of the Denver Center of Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Research at the Rocky Mountain VA Medical Center. Levy is a national palliative care and geriatrics expert who is serving as the Colorado Training Center lead.

ECHO Colorado will provide 16 virtual learning sessions led by national experts. Each session is designed to be interactive—to hear from nursing home staff about the challenges they are facing and provide practical solutions to real problems faced by front-line staff. Each session will include a brief lecture paired with case presentations and discussion, followed by a Q&A forum.

ECHO Colorado is recruiting nursing homes interested in participating in this series, which begins the week of November 9. Registration is open until November 30. All Medicare- and Medicaid-eligible nursing homes in Colorado and Wyoming are invited to join this free, voluntary program.

The Network will provide a $6,000 stipend to each facility for successful completion of the program and a certificate of completion for participating individuals. Nursing homes interested in participating in the ECHO series please email leah.willis@cuanschutz.edu.

ABOUT

ECHO Colorado leverages the knowledge and experience of geographically-diverse communities for workforce development and improved health for all. Our virtual ECHO series increase the capacity of health professionals by enabling specialists and front-line clinicians to meet in a collaborative focused on a particular clinical or public health-related topic. The result is the spreading of knowledge that positively impacts health equity across the state and beyond.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) mission is to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to work within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) uses improvement science to advance and sustain better outcomes in health and healthcare across the world.

Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is a movement to demonopolize knowledge and amplify the capacity to provide best practice care for underserved people all over the world.

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