Uniform Data System (UDS) Test Cooperative

The UDS Test Cooperative (UTC) tests proposed innovations to the UDS and helps BPHC better understand how these changes might affect health centers. The results and recommendations from these tests inform decisions on implementing and scaling innovations across the Health Center Program as part of the UDS Modernization Initiative.

The benefits of supporting the UTC include:

• Finding ways to reduce reporting burden.
• More clearly defining services and diagnoses.
• Making data collection and submission more automated.
• Improving ability to show Health Center Program impacts.

Goals

• Pilot innovations before scaling innovations to assess their implementation feasibility.
• Engage a range of UDS stakeholders to ensure that input on UDS modernization efforts are being considered from diverse perspectives (e.g., health centers representing different geographic locations, sizes, and EHR systems).
• Ensure that UDS stakeholders are actively involved in identifying and testing new UDS innovations.

Example Activities

• Tested the feasibility and impact of aligning the UDS with electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs).
• Determined whether reported UDS CQM performance is meaningfully influenced by including non-routine patients and visits in CQM data.
• Explored the feasibility and impact of leveraging health data standards to define countable visits
• Tested the feasibility and impact of leveraging heath data standards to define diagnosis and service codes in Table 6A.
• Testing Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) server functionality and ability to receive readable UDS+ data files with a draft FHIR Implementation Guide.

Operations

The UTC is made up of representatives from health centers, Primary Care Associations (PCAs), Health Center Controlled Networks (HCCNs) and Health Information Technology (IT) vendors. They work together to test proposed UDS changes.

Steering Committee: The UTC has been led by a Steering Committee of representatives from each of the ten U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regions. The UTC Steering Committee is a subset of UTC participants and represents entities that have formal relationships with the Health Resources and Services Administration. UTC Steering Committee membership is based on the following criteria:

• Organization type: Health Center Program grantees and look-alikes, Primary Care Associations, and Health Center Controlled Networks
• Organizational characteristics: geographic location, size, patient populations served, and health information technology capacity

Health Centers: The primary UTC test participants are the health centers, who then partner with HCCNs and PCAs to conduct testing.

Health Information Technology (HIT) Vendors: Health centers work with HIT vendors to set up testing infrastructure, as needed.

Learn More

• Contact us through the BPHC Contact Form if your organization or electronic health record (EHR) vendor is interested in volunteering to be a UDS+ tester. Choose Uniform Data System (UDS), UDS Modernization, “How To Get Involved.”
• Subscribe to the Primary Care Digest for updates about UDS modernization efforts.

Resources

• UDS Modernization Initiative
• UDS Overview Video
• UDS Modernization Video
• UDS Training and Technical Assistance
• Health Center UDS Data
• Health Center Research and Evaluation