Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes)

Applying Project ECHO® to Improve Health Care Outcomes for All

Using the Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) model, people in communities access knowledge while receiving mentorship and ongoing support to make a difference in their community. Experts and participants learn from one another as knowledge is refined and tested through local experience.

As an approved replication partner of Project ECHO®, we develop and facilitate national, multi-state and state-specific ECHO programs with the goal of transferring knowledge and increasing expertise among participants. Our ECHOs are unique in that our learning opportunities aim to work with participants over a longer period in an effort to build organizational and staff capacity, support individualized needs, and foster a network beyond the length of the ECHO.

Project ECHO® is a guided practice model developed by the University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Center. This approach involves a multidisciplinary team of subject matter experts who meet regularly with ECHO participants via video conferencing to increase knowledge and skills for the delivery of specialty care services. ECHO sessions follow a standard format in order to maximize time, resources and learning.

Project Echo Logo

The core principles of Project ECHO® are to use technology to leverage scarce resources, share “best practices” to reduce disparities, use case-based learning to master complexity, and monitor outcomes using a web-based database.

Our Project ECHO® Portfolio

Treating Addiction in Rural Areas ECHO

We will develop the Treating Addiction in Rural Areas ECHO as part of HRSA’s Telehealth Technology-Enabled Learning Program (TTELP), to strengthen the rural behavioral health care workforce by increasing participant knowledge and application of The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Criteria in an effort to address current and emerging patient needs, improve the quality of SUD care in rural areas, and achieve health equity for rural residents and historically disadvantaged groups.

The Treating Addiction in Rural Areas ECHO will involve a closed cohort of teams (2-5 staff per organization) who deliver substance use treatment, co-occurring behavioral health treatment, and recovery support services in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. Participants will engage in 16 one-hour sessions during the cohort period. We will facilitate two concurrent ECHOs each year for five years.

Learn more about Treating Addiction in Rural Areas ECHO

National Nursing Home COVID-19 Action Network ECHO

We collaborated with New Hampshire’s two other Project ECHO Hubs (Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the NH Citizens Health Initiative at the University of New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice) to serve as an official Training Center, along with 98 other training centers across the county, to deliver the National Nursing Home COVID-19 Action Network ECHO. This initiative involved more than 9,000 nursing homes from all 50 states, nearly two-thirds of the nation’s nursing homes, and was developed to help keep COVID-19 from spreading in area nursing homes and to prepare and equip staff so that they can better protect residents and themselves.

Our Training Center involved a closed cohort of nursing home facility staff from New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. Staff engaged in a 16-session program from November 2020 to March 2021 followed by a 15-session program from May 2021 to August 2021.

Treating Addiction Together ECHO

We developed the Treating Addiction Together ECHO to increase provider understanding and utilization of The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Criteria in clinical decision-making. This ECHO was the first of its kind to focus its knowledge transfer on the utilization of The ASAM Criteria for substance use disorder treatment professionals. This ECHO resulted in providers being able to make better level of care determinations and develop treatment plans based on individual needs.

The Treating Addiction Together ECHO involved a closed cohort of professionals from across New Hampshire representing a variety of years of experience, geographic locations, and ASAM Level of Care service delivery settings. Participants engaged in 18 one-hour sessions over eight months between October 2019 and June 2020.

Learn more about Treating Addiction Together ECHO

Behavioral Health ECHO

FEATURED RESOURCE

We utilized the ECHO model in New Hampshire (NH) to address capacity needs among substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers related to The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Criteria. The Treating Addiction Together ECHO was developed to increase provider understanding and utilization of The ASAM Criteria in clinical decision-making. We utilized both continuous and periodic data collection in order to complete a mixed-methods outcome evaluation. The evaluation sought to quantify benefits of participation in the ECHO in terms of provider gains; changes made in practice settings; and benefits to patients.

Treating Addiction Together ECHO Evaluation Report 2019 – 2020 Cover Image

Questions about JSI ECHOs? Contact echo@jsi.com

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