The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), has awarded the Rockbridge Area Health Center the Health Center Quality Leader Award for the fifth consecutive year.
Presented to the highest performing community health centers nationwide, the Health Center Quality Leader Award recognizes health centers that achieve the best overall clinical quality measure performance.
The Community Health Quality Recognition (CHQR) award promotes optimization of overall quality, efficiency, and value of the health care services provided by the nation’s 1400-plus health centers and celebrates their recent achievements in providing high-quality care to over 30 million patients.
“These recognition awards support the strategic goals for community health centers to improve access to quality health services, achieve health equity, and enhance population health,” said Suzanne Sheridan, RAHC CEO. “They help to ensure that all patients who visit RAHC and other community health centers continue to receive the highest quality care.”
RAHC was also recognized with three additional 2022 Community Health Quality Recognition awards:
Access Enhancer – for increasing the total number of patients served and the number of patients who receive at least one comprehensive service by at least 5%.
Health Disparities Reducer – for improvements in select clinical quality measures during consecutive reporting ears for at least one racial/ethnic group or meets established benchmarks for all racial/ethnic groups served within the most recent reporting year.
Advancing HIT for Quality – for optimizing Health Information Technologies that advance telehealth, patient engagement, interoperability, and collection of health data to increase access to care and advance quality of care.
PCMH – for achieving Patient-Centered Medical Home accreditation for six consecutive years that encompasses five functions and attributes: Comprehensive Care, Patient-Centered, Coordinated Care, Accessible Services, Quality and Safety.
Every year, RAHC and other similar community health centers report standard core data that includes patient characteristics, services provided, clinical processes and health outcomes, patients’ use of services, staffing, costs, and revenues. The recognitions are awarded annually to community health centers that achieve specific quality measures for that calendar year and honor those health care centers that have made notable quality improvement achievements in the areas of access, quality, health equity, and health information technology.
“For 58 years, health centers have delivered affordable, accessible, and cost-effective, high-quality health care to patients, regardless of their ability to pay,” Sheridan added. “RAHC’s efforts are central to advancing a model of coordinated, comprehensive, and patient-centered care that is available to anyone in our community.”