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Ross Brooks

Ross Brooks began his career at CCHN in 2002 as Health Center Resource Manager, and advanced to Director of Health Center Operations in 2005. In this capacity, Ross has been instrumental in sustaining, strengthening, and expanding the operations of the 14 nonprofit community health centers located throughout Colorado. His responsibilities include managing the budget, operations, deliverables, and staff of various CCHN programs with a particular focus on community development, workforce development, emergency preparedness, operations assistance, and HIT efforts.

During his time at CCHN, Ross has spearheaded several programs to help Colorado CHCs better serve their patients. To highlight a few:

• Ross led the development of the Colorado Associated Community Health Information Exchange, known as CACHIE. CACHIE is a collaborative project between CCHN and the Colorado Community Managed Care Network. CACHIE promotes the use of IT and quality reporting by harmonizing the different electronic health records systems used by health centers throughout the state. Ross obtained commitments from CHCs and was able to secure funding from HRSA, AHRQ, and the Colorado Health Foundation.
• Ross created a Group Purchasing Organization, giving health centers more power in negotiating for better purchasing rates. This GPO has saved Colorado health centers more than $5.2 million in referred lab services.
• Ross led the implementation of a CHC employee scholarship program, which distributes $150,000 in scholarships and tuition reimbursements to high-achieving, entry-level health center staff.
• Ross established an emergency preparedness program, focused on preparing CHCs for all hazards.

In addition to the design and implementation of successful programs mentioned above, Ross is also actively engaged in shaping legislation to advance community health centers. For example, Ross influenced the passage of legislation that strengthened CHCs and improved access to care for many Colorado residents. This legislation created a tobacco tax that now contributes more than $30 million to CHCs and other safety net providers, and much of the funding is used for the expansion of Medicaid, CHIP, and disease management programs. Furthermore, to address the need for health professionals in underserved areas throughout Colorado, Ross took the lead in crafting legislation to create a new state loan repayment program for these essential providers. He was appointed by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter to serve on the Colorado Health Professions Loan Repayment Program advisory committee, which oversees implementation of this program.

Ross serves as an advisor to National Health Service Corps, the J-1 Visa Waiver advisory committee, the Colorado Rural Outreach Program grant review committee, the Colorado Rural Recruitment and Retention Network, and was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Health Care Community Board (2007-2010). He has also composed more than 150 custom research reports for leading health care organizations around the country.