Care Quality and Equity in Health Centers During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic.

INTRODUCTION: Federally Qualified Community Health Centers (FQHCs) are on the frontline of efforts to improve healthcare equity and reduce disparities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study assesses the provision and equity of preventive care and chronic disease management by FQHCs before, during, and after the pandemic. METHODS: Using electronic health record data from 210 FQHCs nationwide and employing segmented regression in an interrupted time series design, preventive screening and chronic disease management were assessed for 939,053 patients from 2019 to 2022. Care measures included cancer screenings, blood pressure control, diabetes control, and childhood immunizations; patient-level factors including race and ethnicity, language preference, and multimorbidity status were analyzed for equitable care provision. Analyses were conducted in 2023-2024. RESULTS: Cancer screening rates and blood pressure control initially declined after the onset of the pandemic but later rebounded, while diabetes control showed a slight increase, later stabilizing. Racial and ethnic disparities persisted, with Asian individuals having a higher prevalence of screenings and blood pressure control, and Black/African American individuals facing a lower prevalence for most screenings but a higher prevalence for cervical cancer screening. Hispanic/Latino individuals had a higher prevalence of various screenings and diabetes control. Disparities persisted for Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native individuals and were observed based on language and multimorbidity status. CONCLUSIONS: While preventive screening and chronic disease management in FQHCs have largely rebounded to pre-pandemic levels following an initial decline, persistent disparities highlight the need for targeted interventions to support FQHCs in addressing healthcare inequities.

Care Delivery in Community Health Centers Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic (2019-2022).

INTRODUCTION: Health centers provide primary and behavioral health care to the nation's safety net population. Many health centers served on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought major changes to health center care delivery. OBJECTIVE: To elucidate primary care and behavioral health service delivery patterns in health centers before and during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). METHODS: We compared annual and monthly patients from 2019 to 2022 for new and established patients by visit type (primary care, behavioral health) and encounter visits by modality (in-person, telehealth) across 218 health centers in 13 states. RESULTS: There were 1581,744 unique patients in the sample, most from health disparate populations. Review of primary care data over 4 years show that health centers served fewer pediatric patients over time, while retaining the capacity to provide to patients 65+. Monthly data on encounters highlights that the initial shift in March/April 2020 to telehealth was not sustained and that in-person visits rose steadily after November/December 2020 to return as the predominant care delivery mode. With regards to behavioral health, health centers continued to provide care to established patients throughout the PHE, while serving fewer new patients over time. In contrast to primary care, after initial uptake of telehealth in March/April 2020, telehealth encounters remained the predominant care delivery mode through 2022. CONCLUSION: Four years of data demonstrate how COVID-19 impacted delivery of primary care and behavioral health care for patients, highlighting gaps in pediatric care delivery and trends in telehealth over time.

Landscape of Pregnancy Care in US Community Health Centers.

PURPOSE: Community health centers (CHCs) provide critical health care access for people who experience high risks during and after pregnancy, however it is unclear to what extent they provide prenatal care. This study seeks to describe clinic and patient characteristics associated with longitudinal prenatal care delivery in CHC settings. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study utilized electronic health record (EHR) data from the Accelerating Data Value Across a National Community Health Center Network (ADVANCE) between 2018 to 2019 to describe prenatal care provision among CHCs (n = 408), and pregnant CHC patients (n = 28,578) and compared characteristics of patients who received longitudinal prenatal care at CHCs versus those who did not. RESULTS: 41% of CHCs provided longitudinal prenatal care; these CHCs were more likely to be larger, have multidisciplinary teams, and serve higher proportions of nonwhite or non-English speaking patients. Patients who received longitudinal prenatal care at CHCs were racially and ethnically diverse and many had comorbidities. Patients who received longitudinal prenatal care at CHCs (compared with pregnant patients who did not) were more likely to be white or Latinx and more likely to have non-English language preference. CONCLUSIONS: Many CHCs in this national network provide prenatal care and serve pregnant patients at high risk of pregnancy-related complications, including people of color, those with low income, and those with comorbidities. CHCs provide critical access to care for vulnerable populations and will be an important partner in work addressing inequities in maternal morbidity and mortality.