The Healey Administration and the Massachusetts Broadband Institute are providing the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers with $3.75 million to expand affordable internet access and enhance digital health tools to underserved communities.
The new funding will support health center staff and community members alike. The consortium of 12 hospitals is expected to enhance its capacity to provide essential resources like staffing, training, coaching, oversight and evaluation to federally qualified health centers.
On the patient-facing side, the $3.75 million will provide thousands of underserved individuals access to affordable internet services and allow them to participate in digital-health programs like telehealth services, remote patient monitoring, and patient portal enrollments.
“Through this funding from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and the Digital Equity Partnerships Program, we can provide our partners and community health centers with essential resources to build staff capacity and connect patients to telehealth and other digital programs to advance the goal of equitable, patient-centered care, no matter their ZIP code,” Mass League CEO Michael Curry said in a press release.
The funding from MBI is part of a larger $20 million in grant awards from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Digital Equity Partnerships Program. The program supports high-impact and scalable initiatives for Mass. residents most affected by the digital divide.
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Some of the initiatives from MBI and participating hospitals include professional digital literacy training, device refurbishment and distribution, neighborhood-scale broadband connectivity, digital education for workforce development, telehealth resource navigation and a statewide effort to provide free Wi-Fi in affordable housing and public housing developments.
“These monumental grants ensure that thousands of residents in communities across the state will have the tools and training they need,” MBI Director Michael Baldino said in a press release.
The funds will be split among 12 community health centers in Massachusetts, from the North Shore to the city of Boston to Western Mass. The 12 hospitals to receive funding are:
- Caring Health Center
- Charles River Community Health
- Community Health Center of Franklin County
- Community Health Connections
- Duffy Health Center
- Family Health Center of Worcester
- Fenway Health
- Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center
- Lowell Community Health Center
- North Shore Community Health
- SSTAR
- Upham’s Community Care
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