May 19, 2026
Four community health centers were honored at this year’s OCHIN Learning Forum for their work partnering with OCHIN to measurably improve the lives of their patients, clinicians and communities, while driving innovation to support the continued resilience of rural and community healthcare.
The OCHIN Impact Awards are a cornerstone of the Learning Forum — an annual event where members from across the country gather for nearly 200 sessions focused on learning, collaboration and enrichment. Each year, these awards recognize select members who use the power of our network and OCHIN knowledge solutions in unique ways to transform care delivery and outcomes in their communities.
This year’s honorees represent community health centers at the forefront of healthcare transformation, demonstrating what’s possible when mission-driven organizations collaborate with the OCHIN network.
Congratulations to the following 2026 OCHIN Impact Award recipients:
Erie Family Health Centers
Patient Health and Experience
Erie Family Health Centers elevated patient care by addressing a critical gap in care continuity: ensuring smooth, reliable transitions between care settings, such as emergency departments. With support from OCHIN experts and tools, Erie established an interdisciplinary care team that standardized transition-of-care workflows, implemented data-driven progress tracking and developed a new patient-tiering model.
The impact was substantial. In just 10 months, the proportion of patients from emergency department and inpatient settings completing a follow-up visit within 30 days increased significantly, signaling improvements in appointment timeliness, care coordination and patient outcomes.
Petaluma Health Center
Clinician Efficiency
Petaluma Health Center improved clinician efficiency by closing operational gaps, standardizing reporting and reducing unnecessary burden on care teams. Working alongside OCHIN application, reporting and clinical experts, they developed a unified operational strategy that included redesigning coding workflows, enhancing scheduling visibility, improving visit-status indicators and strengthening documentation tools.
With fewer delays, smoother handoffs and more efficient reporting, clinicians now have more time to care for patients while also prioritizing their own well-being.
Prism Health
Financial and Operational Excellence
Prism Health identified new opportunities to expand patient visit capacity, strengthen revenue streams and ensure timely, effective care. Through collaboration with OCHIN network partners, they redesigned waitlist models, enhanced patient-monitoring dashboards and streamlined visit templates.
These improvements increased patient visit capacity by 60%, allowing Prism Health to serve significantly more patients each month compared with previous years.
Lynn Community Health Center
Community Engagement
Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC) strengthened civic engagement among patients through a partnership with Vot-ER, a nonpartisan organization that provides civic engagement tools to community health centers nationwide. By pairing Vot-ER’s resources with OCHIN tools, LCHC expanded outreach through QR codes, MyChart messages and information included in after-visit summaries.
As a result, more than 1,000 people registered to vote in 2024, and patients reported feeling more empowered and connected to their communities.
Learn more
In the coming weeks, the OCHIN blog will spotlight the Learning Forum and each of the 2026 Impact Award content recipients, highlighting how member organizations are expanding care and improving health outcomes nationwide.
To learn more about becoming an OCHIN member or sponsoring next year’s Learning Forum, visit the OCHIN Learning Forum website.
