For the second consecutive year, Berks Community Health Center has been recognized by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) as a Gold Health Center Quality Leader. This recognition goes to community health centers in the top 10% for best overall clinical quality performance. With over 1,400 Federally Qualified Health Centers nationwide achieving Gold is a tremendous achievement. Achieving it in consecutive years demonstrates that BCHC, founded in 2012, is doing an exceptional job of meeting the healthcare needs of the community.

The digital badges, part of the Community Health Quality Recognition (CHQR) badge program, honor the health centers across the country that have attained the best overall clinical quality performance.  BCHC received a Gold Health Center Quality Leader badge for achievements in improving health outcomes and providing high quality care for patients in rural and underserved communities.

“Receiving this honor for the second year in a row is a testament to our amazing team of committed and skilled staff,” says Dr. Karen Wang, BCHC’s Chief Medical Officer. “Every member of our team ought to be proud of themselves as this recognition comes because of the hard work they do every day. We are very proud that we can provide such high quality care to our community, despite the many challenges our patients experience every day, and it’s a bonus to be recognized on a national level for that work.”

Mary Kargbo, President and CEO added, “Earning back-to-back Gold Badges is a tremendous accomplishment, especially because we are still a relatively young health center, having opened our first location only twelve years ago. We look forward to continuing to live our mission of providing exceptional patient-centered primary and preventative care for all residents of Berks County regardless of economic status.”

BCHC earned additional badges in recognition of specific quality measures met during the 2023 reporting period:

The Advancing Health Information Technology (HIT) for Quality Badge, which recognizes FQHCs that meet all criteria to optimize HIT services that advance telehealth, patient engagement, interoperability, and the collection of social determinants of health to increase the access to care and advance the quality of care.

The Access Enhancer Badge: Recognizes FQHCs that earn a Health Center Quality badge and increase by at least 5% in back-to-back reporting years either total patients served or patients receiving mental health, substance use disorder, vision, dental, or enabling services.

The Addressing Social Risk Factors Badge: Recognizes health centers that collect data on patient social risk factors and increase the percentage of patients who received enabling services between the last two UDS reporting years.

The Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Badge, which recognizes all three BCHC locations as meeting standards to be designated a PCMH. The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model is an approach to delivering high-quality, cost-effective primary care. Using a patient-centered, culturally appropriate, and team-based approach, the PCMH model coordinates patient care across the health system.