Health Center Quality Leader and Covid-19 Public Health Champion among recognitions received during a pandemic year.
September 28, 2022 — Bronx, NY – Urban Health Plan has been awarded seven Community Health Quality Recognition badges from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for benchmarks met and exceeded during the COVID-19 pandemic, the most the organization has ever been awarded by HRSA in a single year.
The Community Health Quality Recognition (CHQR) badges recognize Health Center Program awardees nationally who have made notable quality improvement achievements in access, quality, health equity, reducing health disparities, and health information technology.
“The seven categories reflect the issues all health centers have historically faced in providing care to the community, including health disparities and the social issues that impact health, also known as the social determinants of health,” said Paloma Hernandez, President, and CEO of Urban Health Plan.
“The pandemic presented us with unprecedented challenges; however, we remained focused on fulfilling our mission, which is to continuously provide high-quality health care and health care access to the communities we serve. These recognitions are confirmation that Urban successfully met and overcame what at times felt like insurmountable circumstances. Each badge we’ve earned was the result of the hard work of our associates and the dedication they show to each patient cared for within our health care system,” she said.
“I am so proud and grateful to the entire Urban Health Plan team. This is a major accomplishment for our organization. Everyone at Urban Health Plan should celebrate and share in this historic and important achievement,” said Hernandez.
Urban Health Plan was awarded the following badges in 2022 for the 2021 Uniform Data System (UDS) reporting period:
Health Center Quality Leader (Silver) – The Health Center Quality Leader (HCQL) badges are awarded in tiers (gold, silver, bronze) to awardees that achieve the best overall clinical quality measure (CQM) performance among all health centers. Urban Health Plan earned silver, placing it in the top 11-20% of all health centers nationwide.
Access Enhancer – Increases the total number of patients served and the number of patients who receive at least one comprehensive service (mental health, substance abuse, vision, dental, and/or enabling) by at least 5%.
Health Disparities Reducer – Demonstrates improvements in select CQMs during consecutive UDS reporting years (2020 and 2021 UDS) for at least one racial/ethnic group, or meets established benchmarks for all racial/ethnic groups served within the most recent UDS reporting year.
- Demonstrate at least a 10-percentage point improvement in low birth weight, hypertension control, and/or uncontrolled diabetes CQMs during consecutive UDS reporting years (2020 and 2021 UDS) for at least one racial/ethnic group, while maintaining or improving the health center’s overall CQM performance from the previous reporting year; and/or
- Meet the following benchmarks for all racial/ethnic groups served within the most recent UDS reporting year.
Advancing Health Information Technology (HIT) for Quality – Meets all criteria to optimize HIT services that advance telehealth, patient engagement, interoperability, and collection of social determinants of health data to increase access to care and advance quality of care.
Addressing Social Risk Factors – A new badge that recognizes health centers that are screening for social risk factors impacting patient health and are increasing access to enabling services.
Covid-19 Public Health Champion – A new badge that recognizes health center contributions to providing critical public health services to health center services during the COVID-19 public health emergency and is awarded to the top 10% of health centers that provided COVID-19 vaccinations and/or COVID-19 diagnostic testing to the largest proportion of health center patients.
Patient-Centered Medical Home– Achieves PCMH in one or more delivery sites.
About Urban Health Plan: Urban Health Plan (UHP), a health system of federally qualified community health centers based in the South Bronx, Central Harlem and Corona, Queens, has served the community since 1974. The organization has twelve clinical sites, twelve school-based health centers, two mental health facilities, and ten administrative and program sites. In 2021, it served 85,000 patients. UHP is Joint Commission accredited. For more information, visit www.urbanhealthplan.org
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