August 10, 2021

In honor of National Health Center Week, OCHIN celebrates community health centers (CHCs) across the country that are leading a historic effort to expand equitable access to affordable, high-quality health care.

COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated many long-standing health disparities in the United States and CHCs have been working tirelessly on the frontlines to inform the national pandemic response and bolster COVID-19 vaccination. But their leadership in working to identify common challenges, remove systemic barriers, and drive greater health equity is not new. CHCs first originated in the United States over 60 years ago, thanks to the determination of health and civil rights activists who wanted to improve health care for people who could not afford or access it. Today, these health centers serve nearly 30 million people in more than 13,000 rural and urban communities across America—strengthening the fabric of our nation’s entire health care system from the grassroots.

OCHIN salutes the hard work CHCs do every day to ensure that everyone has a fair opportunity to achieve their full health potential.

“This pandemic year has been one of the most challenging we’ve ever faced together as a network, and as a country,” said Abby Sears, Chief Executive Officer at OCHIN. “We are profoundly grateful for the opportunity to serve health centers and to support their unflagging commitment to building healthier and more equitable communities.”

In support of the national COVID-19 response and broader efforts to advance health equity, OCHIN tools and technology have enabled health centers, and other members of our growing network, to collectively achieve:

• More than 1.6 million telehealth encounters have been completed to date in 2021, expanding access to both primary and specialty care through culturally and linguistically appropriate telemedicine.
• More than 1 million electronic case reports have been delivered to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the AIMS platform across all 50 states, supporting real-time disease monitoring and demographic analysis during COVID-19.
• More than 1.3 million COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to patients seen in the OCHIN network since December 2020, closing vaccination gaps among people of color often through multi-lingual community outreach efforts
• Nearly 900,000 screenings for social determinants of health have been conducted to support more than 500,000 unique patients, while giving providers and researchers deeper insight into how these external factors affect both patient and population health.
• And with over 40 active research projects and more than 200 publications to advance the understanding of health disparities and drive systemic change, the OCHIN network is also building the nation’s largest community laboratory focused on health outcomes, policy, and primary care of underserved patients.

OCHIN is a proud technology and innovation partner to CHCs this National Health Center Week and beyond, as we work together to drive equity, accelerate innovation, and sustain patient-centered health care transformation into the future. Learn more about our solutions and offerings.