Beyond Primary Care: Renewing the Community Health Center Vision for Today's Health Crisis

United States community health centers address socioeconomic and environmental conditions and provide comprehensive primary care despite market forces that reinforce a medical model. Collaborating with 14 health center organizations, the RCHN Community Health Foundation promoted the original and broader health center vision of health, launching its population health management initiative in 2015. Although participating organizations were recognized as patient-centered medical homes and achieved rewards for quality, most identified gaps in their capacity for population health management. These challenges, addressed through peer learning and local initiatives, included engaging target populations, care coordination, socioeconomic and clinical data collection, and working with nontraditional local organizations. With relatively small funding, the zeal and enthusiasm for population health was revitalized among health center staff. The current pandemic and growing national concern for health disparities represents an opportunity to expand this broader vision of population health and to sustain it as the COVID-19 pandemic eventually subsides.