About the Community Health Centers of Southern Iowa (CHCSI)

What is a Community Health Center

Community health centers are required by law to operate a system of care that contributes to the desired outcomes of availability, accessibility, quality, comprehensiveness, and coordination. Centers must ensure that basic primary care services, coordinated with other levels of care, and support services appropriate to the communities defined health care needs are available and accessible. Centers must also have qualified providers and a clinical management system that ensures quality and continuity of care.

The term community health center has both broad and narrow meanings. In the broad sense, community health centers are providers of primary healthcare to medically underserved populations. Unlike the medical model of healthcare delivery, community health centers focus not only on improving the health of individual patients, but on improving the health status of the entire community. This community-oriented focus means community health centers differ from traditional health care providers in several ways. Needs assessment, program development, and evaluation are all framed in terms of both community health needs and patient health.

The services of a community health center are accessible to the target population, comprehensive, and coordinated with other social services. The health center is also accountable to the community which it serves by involving members and health center users in program planning and organizational governance.

To ensure resources are being applied in the most effective way to meet identified needs, every health center is required to develop health care goals and objectives as part of the organization’s planning process. The goals and objectives should consider both the role of the center in the community’s overall system of care and the specific efforts the center will perform on behalf of its own user population and the community in general.
Basic requirements of a community health center are listed below:

It is located in a medically underserved area or serves a medically underserved population

It provides comprehensive primary care (directly and/or by contract)

It serves all patients regardless of age or income, within a defined service area

It has a schedule of discounts (sliding-fee schedule) based on the patient’s ability to pay

It is a public or not-for-profit organization

It has a community-based board of directors. To be federally funded, a majority of board members must use the health center and must represent the community served in terms of demographic factors such as race, ethnicity, sex, age, and socioeconomic status

It has adequate infrastructure in place including finance, management information systems, and communications.


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