Last week was National Health Center Week, celebrating health centers as "the key to healthier communities." Health centers across the state hosted health fairs and other events for community members; elected officials made several visits to tour health centers and talk to patients and providers about current health issues, like the ACA and the opioid crisis. You can view photos from these events on CHCACT's twitter and facebook pages!

In conjunction with National Health Center Week, the Bureau of Primary Health Care released 2016 Uniform Data System (UDS) data on health centers. A few notable facts:

• CT health centers served almost 374,000 people in 2016, a 7% increase from the prior year;
• CT health centers provided over 1 million medical visits, 264,000 dental visits and almost 400,000 mental health visits in 2016;
• CT health centers employed over 3,300 people in 2016!

You can see all of the health center demographic and clinical data here.

Deb Polun, MA

Senior Director for Policy & Outreach

Finally, I am happy to share that the federal government has awarded almost $1.8 million in Quality Improvement Awards to health centers in our state! These awards demonstrate health centers' commitment to innovation in health care delivery, and the overall improvement of people's health! These goals and achievements are in alignment with CHCACT's Practice Transformation Network grant, as well as other quality improvement projects. You can view the list of awards here.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

- Deb