The Journal of ambulatory care management
-
J Ambul Care Manage · Jan 2013
Comparative StudyRacial/ethnic differences in clinical quality performance among health centers.
More than 1100 federally funded health centers provide primary and preventive care to about 20 million underserved patients in the United States. Since 2008, the Health Resources and Services Administration has implemented a clinical quality improvement initiative to measure and evaluate the quality of care across all health centers. We assessed racial/ethnic disparities in clinical quality among US health centers, and examined whether performance on quality measures varied across 3 health center characteristics. ⋯ Compared with national rates, health centers report minimal racial/ethnic disparities in clinical outcomes. Health center characteristics are also associated with clinical outcomes. More research is needed to determine the nature of disparities after accounting for health center patient, provider, and institutional characteristics.