Through research and evaluation, we examine new ways to support the Health Center Program in providing high quality and cost-effective care to historically medically underserved communities. This includes assessing the impact of specific policy or program shifts in access, quality, cost of services, and health equity. We also provide insight into emergent federal healthcare priorities.
Products and Resources
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Visit the Health Center Library to find current peer-reviewed articles that describe innovative promising practices, evidence-based interventions, quality improvement programs, and program evaluations relevant to health centers.
Briefs
View briefs, fast stats, and other resources that highlight ongoing health center research and evaluation activities.
Access to Care
- New Health Center Capacity in Rural Maternity Care Deserts (PDF - 352 KB)
Growing evidence shows maternal care disparities in the U.S., such as rural counties that lack obstetrician-gynecologists, certified nurse midwives, and hospitals that provide obstetric care, known as maternity care deserts. A new analysis explores the role of HRSA-funded health centers in helping to address rural access to maternity care. - New Role of Health Centers in Providing Medication-Assisted Treatment (PDF - 327 KB)
Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is increasingly shown to be effective in treating opioid use disorder and reducing mortality. A new study explores geographic areas that most depend on health center providers for MAT. - HIV Testing and Health Center Patients
HRSA-funded health center patients are more likely to receive HIV testing than the general population.
Quality of Care
- New Comparison of Clinical Quality Measures for Appalachian and Non-Appalachian Health Centers (PDF - 352 KB)
A new analysis explores differences in quality measures between Appalachian health centers and health centers outside of Appalachia. Learn how health centers within the Appalachia regions exhibit performance on par or better than non-Appalachia regions. - Diabetes Brief (PDF - 500 KB)
Learn more about the proportion of health center patients diagnosed with diabetes, as well as health center patients with uncontrolled diabetes by race and ethnicity, trends of uncontrolled diabetes among health center patients as compared to national averages, and the five most common health center patient diagnoses.
Cost of Care
- Health Center Care Use and Spending (PDF - 704 KB)
Learn how health centers saved Medicaid nearly $2,300 per patient in total annual healthcare spending.
Data Tools and Sources
Health Center Patient Survey
Explore the Health Center Patient Survey (HCPS) data to gain a rich and detailed portrait of patients’ experience with the care and services they receive at HRSA-funded health centers. Data from the 2014 HCPS, including a downloadable public use file (PUF) and interactive data dashboard, are available on the HCPS page. Data is being collected for the 2021 HCPS and will be available when finalized.
Uniform Data System (UDS)
Each calendar year HRSA Health Center Program awardees and look-alikes are required to report a core set of information, including data on patient characteristics, services provided, clinical indicators, utilization rates, costs, and revenues. View the Health Center UDS Data page to learn more. Access the UDS Mapper tool to run geographical analyses based on UDS data.
Health Center COVID-19
As part of COVID-19 emergency response efforts, health centers fill out a survey to help track the impact of COVID-19 on health center operations, patients, and staff. View our dashboards, which provide updates on health center COVID-19 testing, vaccinations, and operations.
