Health Centers and Social Determinants of Health: An Analysis of Enabling Services Provision and Clinical Quality
What does this study add? The researchers found health centers that provided the most enabling services performed better on nine of ten clinical quality process measures. However, these health centers had more patients with uncontrolled high blood pressure and diabetes.
What are the implications for the Health Center Program? These findings suggest enabling services may have a stronger positive correlation with clinical quality process measures than outcome measures. However, it is unlikely that enabling services have a detrimental effect on outcome measures, and it is more plausible that enabling services are unable to independently address certain poor health outcomes. Enabling services are intended to increase access to care, which is an example of a process measure, while other factors contribute to final health outcomes throughout the continuum of care. Even so, better clinical process performance shows that these services might mitigate some effects of social risk factors.