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What community health centers need from tech right now (and what you can borrow from them)

September showed up with five Tuesdays this year. Instead of letting the extra one go to waste, I'm turning it into a bonus Tip. Think of it as the fries at the bottom of the bag: unexpected, and better than you'd think.

Quick recap: we just wrapped our 4-part HIPAA & Trust series. We covered setting up a space patients trust, the HIPAA rules you can't skip, what patients notice in the first five minutes, and whether AI belongs in your practice. Missed one? It's all at futureofhealthnow.com.

Today's bonus is about virtual care operations. I've been digging into what Certified Community Behavioral Health Centers (CCBHCs) and community health centers (FQHCs) need most from technology right now. These organizations handle mental health, substance use, primary care, crisis response, and social needs, often with thin staff and thinner budgets. When they figure out what works, the rest of us should pay attention.

The short version: they need connected, secure, easy-to-use systems. Another shiny standalone tool isn't the answer. The goal is less paperwork and better-coordinated care.

Bonus Tip: Build virtual care that reaches everyone, everywhere

Here's the Telehealth piece of the puzzle, and it applies whether you're a 40-provider health center or a solo practice with a very loyal cat.

1. Meet patients where their Wi-Fi is (or isn't). Video visits are great until someone's connection freezes on their most important sentence. Health centers are expanding Telehealth, but they're designing it so patients without reliable devices, broadband, or tech skills aren't left out. Build in audio-only visits, text reminders, phone check-ins, and good old paper as backups.
2. Make the front door digital. Online intake, e-consents, screening questionnaires, scheduling, and reminders all save your staff hours. They also let patients do the paperwork on their couch rather than on a clipboard in your waiting room. Bonus points for language and accessibility options.
3. Take the chart on the road. Mobile crisis teams work in homes, schools, and rural areas where cell signal goes to die. The tools they rely on offer secure mobile chart access, notes and e-signatures in the field, and offline mode that syncs later. Even if you're not doing crisis work, ask your vendor: "What happens when the internet drops?" If the answer is a long pause, that's your answer.
4. Close the loop on referrals. Sending a referral is the easy part. The best systems track whether it was accepted, scheduled, attended, and followed up. Otherwise, a referral can quietly vanish.
5. Lock it down without locking people out. MFA, role-based access, audit logs, encrypted messaging, and tested backups are the baseline. Behavioral health and substance use records need extra privacy care, so your tools should make consent easy to record, update, and revoke, while still letting the right people coordinate care.

The bottom line: The best tech investment usually isn't the flashiest one. It's the one that connects your systems, cuts your documentation time, and works for every patient, including the ones with a flip phone and one bar of signal. (And yes, AI can help draft notes and flag outreach lists, but treat it as a supervised assistant, not the new office manager.)

Coming in October: Tech in Behavioral Health Settings

Starting next Tuesday, we're kicking off a brand-new 4-part series built for behavioral health practices and the organizations that partner with them:

• Week 1 (Oct 6): Your EHR should play well with others. Interoperability and care coordination without the headaches.
• Week 2 (Oct 13): Outcomes without spreadsheets. Measurement-based care and reporting that runs itself.
• Week 3 (Oct 20): Telehealth for every patient. Engagement tools that work with any device (or no device).
• Week 4 (Oct 27): Security and AI in behavioral health. Protecting sensitive data while letting smart tools do the grunt work.

Four Tuesdays, four tips you can actually use. Set a reminder or bribe a coworker to forward it to you. Whatever works.

As always, if you have questions about any of this, just hit reply. I read every one.

Talk soon,
Dan

P.S. If you run a CCBHC or similar organization and today's Tip made you think "our virtual care setup could use a tune-up," that's exactly what our Virtual Care Operations Assessment is for. In 2 weeks, you'll know exactly what to fix before the end of 2026.

P.P.S. If you're a small practice or newer to virtual care, this is the last chance to get the 5 week coaching program under $1000. Due to demand and the success that providers have had, this price will go up in October. We've learned many lessons from helping thousands of providers do virtual care. Start or Grow your Virtual Care Program the right way and avoid any headaches down the road! Click the link below.

General Questions about AI? The Superhuman Newsletter is the leader in explaining AI use to everyday users. And their sponsorship helps to keep our Newsletter and tips Free to all of you. Support them and learn to use AI prompts effectively by clicking the link below:

Also: Want to go back and look at our previous Telehealth Tips? Click Here​