Recently our Health Center went through a very thorough review by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the Federal Government. To operate our organization we must abide by the rules and regulations of HRSA, which allows us to provide the services we offer and target our services to the special needs of our community. After a three day visit by three experienced federal reviewers looking over our services, policies and practices, they concluded that Shasta Community Health Center met all 19 major federal requirements and the hundreds of conditions under those major requirements. In short, we scored a 100%! Their parting comments to our Patient-Community Board and leadership team was that Shasta Community Health Center "is an elite organization", clearly in the top 1% of Community Health Centers in all of the United States! They shared that not only do we meet the technical expectations of the laws and regulations, we clearly mee t the mission of access, service and quality and that this sets us apart. The HRSA reviewers made special mention of our Healthcare for the Homeless program (i.e. HOPE) along with our Early Intervention Services (EIS) that focuses on HIV care. They were astounded by the level of quality and access that we provide through our oral health/dental program as well as our Primary Care Neuro-Psychiatry (PCN) programs. The HRSA physician reviewer also commented that from what she has observed she would be very pleased to have her own family get their care from our clinicians and support staff!
While no one person or organization is perfect, this recognition by experienced outside reviewers demonstrates that we are on the right track. We hope our patients are as pleased as we are with this recognition. We would add that our patients also played an important part in this as they help us to constantly improve. For example, the monthly patient phone surveys that are done by an outside third party help us to identify areas of success and areas of improvement, so thank you for responding honestly to those calls. In addition, our Board of Directors is made up of a majority of patients/consumers who make Shasta Community Health Center their "medical home". This role is very important in making sure that our Board holds our leadership accountable for how our patients experience their care and for the quality of that care, as well as the efficient use of limited resources entrusted to us. So we are very thankful to them for volunteering their time and skills in helping us constantly strive to improve and better ourselves.
This HRSA review is now a three year process so we will now begin to prepare for the next review which will be three years from now. While we scored a perfect 100% we are well aware of areas of improvement and we are committed to taking steps to do that. In the meantime, we want our patients to know that by these national measures, your medical, dental and mental health needs are in good hands with us and we thank our patients for entrusting us with your care and the care of your families.
