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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Clinical Support Center (CSC)

Mission Statement

Purpose

The Mission of the Clinical Support Center (CSC) is to develop, facilitate, and support continuing professional education programs meeting the needs of the healthcare teams at Indian Health Service facilities, "contracting" or "compacting" tribal facilities, or Title V urban programs (collectively referred to in this Mission Statement as "IHS/tribal/urban programs, or I/T/Us"). To accomplish this, CSC will partner with internal IHS organizational units and external stakeholders to leverage resources. Additionally, CSC will consider requests from other Federal government agencies to plan and implement educational programs when resources allow.

Consistent with this Mission, activities are designed to:

  1. Enhance the quality of patient care and improve patient outcomes.
  2. Remedy identified practice gaps within Indian health programs through knowledge-, competency-, and performance-based learning.
  3. Meet the standards required by national accrediting organizations including the Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education, recognized by these global leaders: Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).
  4. Support individual professional continuing education requirements for certification, licensure, and credentialing.
  5. Support the continuing education requirements of The Joint Commission (TJC) and other accrediting agencies at all facilities.
  6. Promote the use of IHS performance improvement activities, Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) data, the IHS Director’s Initiatives, and local performance data for needs assessment and outcome evaluation.
  7. Support efforts to achieve the Surgeon General’s Healthy People 2030 Goals for the Nation and the IHS Director’s Initiatives and Priorities.
  8. Support Leadership Development activities and the Improving Patient Care initiative.

Target Audience

The target audience of the CSC continuing education program is the interprofessional healthcare teams that provide services at I/T/U facilities across the United States. This team includes physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses, social workers, psychologists, and all other health professionals. When appropriate, patients, health profession students, and communities will be involved in the planning and learning experience. The target audience for activities provided for other Federal agencies will be similar.

Types of Activities

The activities and services supported include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Live courses, regularly scheduled series, and Internet-based activities. These will emphasize a variety of learning formats, team participation, use of technology, and learner participation.
  2. Internet-based, self-directed/on-demand enduring materials.

Content

CE activity content is designed to address professional practice gaps of the interprofessional healthcare teams with special emphasis given to the unique needs of remote, rural, and urban providers and their patients in the Indian health care system. The content areas of the activities provided by CSC will include the following:

  1. The broad range of topics encountered by the primary care health care team.
  2. An emphasis on subjects that have a great impact on the American Indian/Alaska Native population.
  3. The interface between different cultural beliefs about health and wellness, traditional Indian medicine, and western or allopathic medicine.
  4. Specialized areas of health care that are applicable to practice in Indian country.
  5. Clinical leadership and administrative topics that will be needed by clinicians assigned to such roles.
  6. Required learning activities, such as Advanced Cardiac Life Support courses.

Expected Results

The outcomes of CSC-provided activities will be measured by the following:

  1. Participation of the audience targeted.
  2. Self-reported perceived improvement in knowledge or competency.
  3. Self-reported intention to change performance.
  4. Achievement of established learning objectives.
  5. Documented changes in indicators suggesting improvements in patient outcomes.