SFCHC is Bursting With Pride

Photo by: Photography By Zarek

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We know it would be rude to sing our praises, but what if someone else already is? San Fernando Community Health Center is being celebrated by the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) for improvements in healthcare.

Each year, HRSA awards Community Health Quality Recognition badges to federally qualified health centers (or look-alikes) who show quality improvements in access, quality, equity, health information technology, or Covid-19 public health emergency response. For 2023, San Fernando earned not one, not two, but FIVE of these badges for our performance in clinical quality measures (CQM). (That means we get to toot our own horn five ways.)

2023 GOLD Health Center Quality Leader Badge

Awardees of this badge are determined by their Adjusted Quartile Ranking, which ranks CQM performance while considering the center’s percentage of patients who are uninsured, racial or ethnic minorities, experiencing homelessness, migrants or seasonal farm workers, and whether the center uses electronic health records. Only health centers with AQR averages in the top 10% receive the gold badge, as San Fernando is proud to say we did!

2023 Access Enhancer Badge

This badge means that San Fernando increased both its total number of patients and the number of patients receiving mental health, substance use disorder, vision, dental, or enabling services by at least 5% in successive years. In those same years, we also improved our performance by at least 15% in adult BMI, HIV screening, controlling high blood pressure, and positive HIV follow-up measures. Earning a HCQL badge was also a requirement.

2023 Health Disparities Reducer Badge

To earn this badge, San Fernando earned the Access Enhancer badge and improved by at least 10% in the high blood pressure control CQM for at least one racial or ethnic group in consecutive years. This improvement was also a requirement for performance at the health center level.

2023 Advancing Health Information Technology (HIT) for Quality Badge

This badge required us to meet several criteria, and we did!

• We updated and improved our existing electronic health record (EHR) system.
• We offered telehealth services.
• We made clinical health information accessible online to key providers in healthcare settings.
• We involved patients in their care through health information technology.
• We collected data on patient social risk factors.

2023 Addressing Social Risk Factors Badge

The work we did to qualify for the other badges helped make earning this badge possible: San Fernando collected data on patient social risk factors and increased the number of patients receiving enabling services between the last two reporting years.

It’s fun to pat ourselves on the back, but our favorite way to celebrate these achievements is sharing them with our patients. Visit San Fernando Community Health Center today and enjoy award-winning services for yourself!

Author

Heather Hillstrom For several years, Heather Hillstrom has proudly provided copywriting and videography services to support SFCHC's mission of compassionate care for all who need it. She gained much of her experience and education at prominent advertising and marketing firms, with clients in healthcare, real estate, medical technology, and environmental products and activism, among others. Her writing portfolio includes DVD/Blu-ray bonus features for Paramount’s RANGO and Disney’s LOST, nearly all the content for the latter’s companion website Lost University, and a radio and television campaign that aired during the Olympics. She wrote on the multi-award-winning web series NONE IN THE OVEN and her feature script HIT OR STAND was a Second Rounder at Austin Film Festival and a PAGE Awards quarterfinalist. Many of her projects and awards can be viewed at www.hungrypictures.com.