Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
National Cooperative Agreement

 In 2008, the National Network for Oral Health Access (NNOHA) was awarded its first Cooperative Agreement under the National Training and Technical Assistance Cooperative Agreements through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).  While there have been many Cooperative Agreements executed by HRSA, this is the first Cooperative Agreement that involves a Health Center oral health program network.    Through the Cooperative Agreement, NNOHA has made significant strides to provide technical assistance to Health Centers seeking to provide, expand, or improve oral health services.

2011-2014 National Cooperative Agreement Summary

Project Title:  Oral Health Training and Technical Assistance National Cooperative Agreement (NCA)

Target Audience of the NCA:

• Health Center oral health providers
• Primary Care Associations
• Primary Care Offices
• State Offices of Rural Health

Areas of Focus:

• The National Oral Health Learning institute– A continuing learning program for Health Center oral health providers and leadership, including a comprehensive on-demand online learning resource, the Institute is a new strategy that builds directly upon the deliverables and resources developed as part of NNOHA’s previous HRSA Cooperative Agreement over the past three years.
• The National Primary Oral Health Conference– NPOHC is designed by leaders in the field of safety-net dentistry and includes a wide variety of topics to meet the continuing education needs for providers in the safety net. The conference addresses the Core Functions of this Cooperative Agreement for T/TA in fiscal and program management, operational and administrative support and assistance in program development and analysis by disseminating the T/TA developed through this Cooperative Agreement. 
• Oral Health Workforce Activities– To address the growing needs for committed oral health providers in Health Centers, NNOHA will engage in various workforce-related activities, such as the improvement of its job bank, revising the salary survey of Health Center dental providers, and working with dental schools and NHSC to develop clinician recruitment strategies. 
• Collaboration and Outreach – Under this NCA, NNOHA aims to reach out to Health Centers that are not familiar with NNOHA, as well as new partners such as SORHs.  Targets for outreach include Health Centers both with and without oral health programs, individual health care providers working in safety-net programs, statewide organizations supporting Health Center programs such as PCAs, SOHR, PCOs, and public and private industry partners.

Primary Types of Activities:

NNOHA’s primary activities under this NCA include: designing and presenting conference sessions, web-based resources (e.g. modules, job bank, library), publications (including monographs, factsheets, issue briefs and newsletter articles), one-on-one mentoring, and curriculum and educational presentations.  

2008-2011 National Cooperative Agreement Summary of Accomplishments

With the 2008-2011 NCA funding, NNOHA was able to expand its resources and meet or exceed all deliverables.  Highlights of NNOHA’s accomplishments during this funding period include:

• Expanding the reach: NNOHA’s membership expanded to over 1,800, enabling the organization to reach a greater portion of Health Center oral health providers.
  
• Convening a forum of Health Center oral health providers: NNOHA sponsored very successful 2009 and 2010 National Primary Oral Health Conferences.  Approximately 500 individuals attended each year, providing excellent feedback. 
  
• Resource development: During 2008-2011, NNOHA developed a number of resources, including:
  
  
  • Operations Manual for Health Center Oral Health Programs
  • Job bank for safety-net oral health programs
  • A salary survey on Health Center dental providers
  • 5 factsheets and white papers
  • Compensation Analysis Tool
  • TA and start-up toolkits
  • Patient-Centered Health Home resources
    
• Communicating emerging topics and best practices:NNOHA disseminates information related to Health Center oral health programs through newsletter, website, webinars and conference sessions. 
  
• Provision of technical assistance:NNOHA staff and board of directors provide TA in forms of answering practice management questions, navigating individuals to appropriate resources, and individual mentoring.

 This site is supported by Grant/Cooperative Agreement No. #U30CS09745 from the Health Resources and Services Administration Bureau of Primary Health Care (HRSA/BPHC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of HRSA/BPHC.