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Community health center accomplishments and challenges, one year in to the COVID-19 pandemic
Community health center accomplishments and challenges, one year in to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Policy issue brief (Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative)
- Author(s):
- Sharac, Jessica, author
Morris, Rebecca, author
Casoni, Maria, author
Jacobs, Feygele, author
Shin, Peter, author - Contributor(s):
- Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative issuing body.
Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy, issuing body.
George Washington University, issuing body.
Milken Institute School of Public Health, issuing body. - Publication:
- [Washington, D.C.] : Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, April 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Community Health Centers
Community Health Services
COVID-19
United States - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- This brief reports the trends on key elements from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) Health Center COVID-19 Survey over the past year, and highlights health centers’ accomplishments in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the challenges that they face as the pandemic continues and the nation prepares to recover. While affected by the unique demands of the public health emergency, health centers have demonstrated enormous resiliency, adding new testing and vaccine capacity while adapting to maintain services. Among the key accomplishments: (1) Nearly all community health centers (99 percent) are now offering diagnostic testing for the COVID 19 virus, up from 80 percent reported in early April 2020. (2) Nearly 9.7 million health center patients, most of whom are racial/ethnic minorities, have been tested for the COVID-19 virus. (3) Health centers rapidly pivoted to telehealth. While more than half of visits, on average, were conducted virtually in April 2020, this rate has decreased to about a quarter of visits currently, but telehealth remains an important option offered to improve access. (4) With the introduction of vaccines, health centers were rapidly engaged to reach the hardest-hit communities. Three in four health center staff members and one in 14 patients (7 percent) had completed their COVID-19 vaccination series as of April 2nd, 2021, with the pace of vaccination increasing rapidly and racial/ethnic minority patients accounting for the majority of those vaccinated. (5) With the rapid introduction and roll-out of the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program and generally increased vaccine availability, fewer health centers are reporting challenges with vaccine supply (23 percent in April 2021, down from 65 percent in January), enabling health centers to more effectively reach their communities.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (16 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918366987306676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918366987306676