PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to examine the rate of depression screening among patients, aged 19 and older, seen at a community health center, while referencing to US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) screening recommendations. METHODS A random sample of 500 patients, aged 19 and older, were extracted from the total number of patients seen at the community health center, between...

OBJECTIVE To assess the frequency of barriers to specialty care and to assess which barriers are associated with an incomplete specialty referral (not attending a specialty visit when referred by a primary care provider) among children seen in community health centers. STUDY DESIGN Two months after their child's specialty referral, 341 parents completed telephone surveys assessing whether a s...

Community health centers (CHCs) are responsible for providing care for more than fifteen million Americans, many of whom are members of groups who have been documented to receive low-quality care. This study examines the quality of care for patients with chronic disease in a nationally representative sample of federally funded CHCs. Fewer than half of eligible patients received appropriate care...

In response to its concern for the future of community health centers (CHCs) and those who receive care in these centers, in 1997 the Pfizer Foundation created and funded Community Health Ventures (CHV), a four-year, $3.6 million grant-making program. It was designed to increase the capacity of centers to adjust to a changing health care environment. This descriptive special report discusses th...

BACKGROUND Obesity is at epidemic proportions. This study examined the extent to which obesity is being diagnosed at a community health center residency-training site. Results were examined by provider type. Characteristics of patients with obesity diagnosed by primary care providers were compared with characteristics of patients determined to be obese by body mass index (BMI) calculation exclu...

BACKGROUND Being an important part of China's Urban Health Care Reform System, Community Health Centers (CHCs) have been established throughout the entire country and are presently undergoing substantial reconstruction. However, the services being delivered by the CHCs are far from reaching their performance targets. In order to assess the role of the CHCs, we examined their performance in six ...

Community health centers (CHCs) are essential in the delivery of primary care services to underserved populations. Given the critical function of CHCs, surprisingly little is known about their role in preparing for or responding to acts of terrorism. This survey-based study examines the state of CHCs in terrorism preparedness and assesses their training needs. Of the administrators who responde...

OBJECTIVES To examine individual clinic staff members' experiences with using an immunization registry and to compare staff members' perceptions of immunization registries across different provider sites. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey using in-depth interviews and direct observation. SETTINGS The pediatric department of an urban community health center and 2 urban hospital-based pediatric p...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES A 1999 precursor to this study, published in Family Medicine, suggested that the organizational culture of practices was potentially important to health care providers and patients. In this research, we examined the experiences of people working in exemplary community health center practices to explore the components and maintaining factors of positive medical organiza...