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About ACU's Centers of Excellence Initiative

Uniting both the general concept of Centers of Excellence as well as the Health Resources and Services Administration’s specific Advancing Health Center Excellence Framework, the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved’s emerging Centers of Excellence (COE) program aims to identify and develop a framework of standards and create supportive resources to help health centers develop their capacity and excellence in critical areas to improve health equity as true Centers of Excellence.

Health Center Excellence: Best Practice Briefs

With the generous support of the Centene Corporation, ACU has been deliberate in researching best practices and has now compiled a series of briefs through stakeholder and subject matter expert interviews and literature reviews on four crucial areas of health center services, including:

  • Eye Health and Vision Care
  • Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
  • Suicide Prevention in Primary Care
  • Workforce Retention and Recruitment

These briefs provide essential guidance on best practices, resources to evaluate and improve your health center’s services, and recommendations from leaders and subject matters in the field. Read the briefs below and please contact us with any questions.

Eye Health and Vision Care Services

Essential Steps for Health Centers

Developed through interviews with FQHC experts and relevant research, this brief explores essential practices and resources that health centers can use to guide their existing or emerging eye health and vision care services.

Read the Brief

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Essential Steps for Health Centers

This brief provides a list of essential practices in JEDI based on ACU’s “Building an Inclusive Organization” toolkit, research and assessments from the field, and interviews with health center leaders directly involved in JEDI initiatives.

Read the Brief

Suicide Prevention in Primary Care & Supporting Healthcare Teams

Essential Steps for Health Centers

Based on interviews with national experts and resources from ACU’s Suicide Safer Care program, this brief outlines recommended best practices for suicide prevention in primary care, as well as organizational techniques to address suicide risk in providers and healthcare team members.

Read the Brief

Workforce Retention, Recruitment, and Resilience

Essential Steps for Health Centers

This brief details best practices from ACU’s STAR2 Center—as well as interviews with state and national experts on FQHC workforce development—that health centers can use to achieve robust standards of excellence for recruitment and retention.

Read the Brief

More Information

For questions or comments on ACU’s COE Initiative, please contact Rick Brown, Associate Director of Communications & Membership.

Join ACU’s First JEDI Champion Training: Nov. 7-8 in Nashville, TN

ACU invites you to attend our first JEDI Champion Training. This intensive two-day training equips healthcare staff and leaders with information, skills, and tools to build energy and momentum to advance justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion at work, while building a network of peers and allies. Attendees will receive a certificate after completing the training. Only 50 seats are available; register now!