SALISBURY — The  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) has recognized Chesapeake Health Care for its commitment to quality health care by awarding it six Community Health Center Quality Recognition (CQHR) badges. They are:

• National Quality Leader - Represents health center awardees and LALs that meet or exceed national benchmarks for one or more of the clinical quality measures (CQMs) groups that promote behavioral health, heart health, diabetes health, HIV prevention and care, and maternal and child health.
• Health Center Quality Leader - Achieves the best overall clinical quality measure (CQM) performance among all health centers and are recognized in the following tiers: Gold (top 10%), Silver (top 11-20%), or Bronze (top 21-30%).
• Access Enhancer - Increases the total number of patients served and the number of patients who receive at least one comprehensive service (mental health, substance abuse, vision, dental, and/or enabling) by at least 5%.
• Health Disparities Reducer - Demonstrates improvements in select CQMs during consecutive UDS reporting years (2020 and 2021 UDS) for at least one racial/ethnic groups; or meets established benchmarks for all racial/ethnic groups served within the most recent UDS reporting year.
• Advancing Health Information Technology (HIT) for Quality - Meets all criteria to optimize HIT services that advance telehealth, patient engagement, interoperability, and collection of social determinants of health data to increase access to care and advance quality of care.
• Health centers with patient-centered medical home (PCMH) recognition in one or more delivery site received Achieving Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition.

The Community Health Quality Recognition (CHQR) badges recognize Health Center Program awardees that have made notable quality improvement achievements in the areas of access, quality, health equity, health information technology, and COVID-19 public health emergency response for the most recent UDS reporting period.

“These awards recognize our achievements in our daily focus of providing critical, primary, and preventive quality care for some of the community’s most vulnerable members. I would like to thank the entire CHC team for their hard work in ensuring our continued high-quality care and accessibility, which ultimately led to these nationally recognized awards,” said Brian Holland, CEO.

“I’m proud of our entire staff who works together to develop and implement strategies that improve the quality, efficiency, and value of health care for those in our community, so we’re very pleased and proud to be honored for our work.”

Chesapeake Health Care currently provides health care to more than 51,000 patients in the Lower Eastern Shore every year. To view CHC’s program awardee data submitted to HRSA, visit https://bit.ly/3KEMJJ1.