Quality At PCHC

Transforming Lives… Transforming the Health Care System.

PCHC cares enough about you to measure the quality of the care we provide. This means you feel better sooner!

PCHC is a top quality health care organization that has received multiple national awards and recognition.  In fact, Penobscot Community Health Care has been regionally and nationally recognized as a leader among the nation’s Community Health Centers.  PCHC has been repeatedly cited for our quality of care, patient outcomes, and technological leadership. The list of these accolades includes:

  • PCHC is accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC). The AAAHC certificate of accreditation is a sign that a health care organization meets or exceeds nationally-recognized standards. We participate in on-going self-evaluation, peer review, and education to continuously improve care and services. At PCHC, you can expect safe, high-quality patient care.
  • National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Patient Centered Medical Home Certification program reflects the input of the American College of Physicians (ACP), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP), and American Osteopathic Association (AOA) and other organizations.  Building on the joint principles developed by the primary care specialty societies, the PPC®-PCMH™ standards emphasize the use of systematic, patient-centered, coordinated care management processes.
  • NCQA Evidence Based Medicine Certification in diabetes and heart/stroke was developed in conjunction with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the American Heart Association (AHA).  This voluntary program is designed to recognize physicians and other clinicians, who use evidence-based measures and provide excellent care to their patients with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke.  This award goes to providers who care for these patients and PCHC has several providers who have been awarded this honor.
  • Healthcare Equality Index:  PCHC was named a top performer in the Healthcare Equality Index, an annual survey administered by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation. PCHC earned top marks for its treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender patients and employees and Penobscot Community Health Care was one of just a handful of healthcare facilities nationwide to be named a top performer.  PCHC is the first healthcare facility in Maine to earn this distinction. See more about our LGBTQ health services here. 
  • Maine Patient Centered Medical Home Pilot Project:  The Maine Quality Forum (MQF), Quality Counts, and the Maine Health Management Coalition selected 3 PCHC practices for the Maine Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Pilot Project as a first step in ultimately achieving the goal of statewide implementation of a patient-centered medical home model across Maine. Practices will be expected to implement a set of ten core expectations addressing key practice changes.
  • Get Better Maine is a rating system to evaluate practices developed by the Maine Health Management Coalition.  Three PCHC practices received Better or Best designations in Diabetes Care, Heart Disease Care, and Systems to track test results, send reminders, and avoid medication errors.

Transforming Lives… Transforming the Health Care System.

PCHC Was Recognized by HRSA for exceeding benchmarks in four key areas:

1) Health Center Quality Leader
– Health centers that meet or exceed national benchmarks for one or more of the clinical quality measures.
– Achieve the best overall clinical quality measure (CQM) performance among all health centers

2) Advancing Health Information Technology (HIT) for Quality
– Meet all criteria to optimize HIT services that advance telehealth, patient engagement, interoperability, and collection of social determinants of health to increase access to care and advance quality of care.

3) COVID-19 Data Reporter
– Supported data for public health emergencies with response rates of 90 percent or more.

4) Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition (PCMH):
– Achieve PCMH recognition in one or more delivery sites.

  • NCQA Patient Centered Medical Home – Level III Recognition for 9 primary care sites
  • AAAHC Accreditation

Quality Performance

  • Improved in almost all the clinical quality measures in 2021 compared to 2020 data
  • We had a 20% Increase in our depression screening and follow-up measure with a total of 85% of patients screened for depression.
  • 98% of patients seen in 2021 were screened for tobacco use and offered smoking cessation treatment.
  • 84% of our Adult population had BMI screening at their visit and received counseling. This is close to a 20% increase between 2020 and 2021.

PCHC Known as a “Teaching Health Center”

In addition to these awards, PCHC has been designated by the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) as a  “Teaching Health Center” as part of the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program.  PCHC is one of only 59 designated Teaching Health Centers in the country.  As a Teaching Health Center, PCHC provides three nationally accredited residency programs (post-university training) as well as multiple educational programs. Educational Programs administered by PCHC include:

  • Two Accredited Pharmacy Residency Programs: The PGY1 Community Pharmacy Residency Program provides structured and advanced training to prepare pharmacists for a successful career in ambulatory and community settings, faculty positions, or further PGY2 fellowship training.  The PGY2 in Health-System Pharmacy Administration offers longitudinal practice experiences to prepare its graduates to become highly-skilled leaders and advocates for our profession, well-equipped managers and supervisors, and future pharmacy administrators and directors.
  • A twelve-month nurse practitioner residency program, that is specifically focused on increasing the clinical knowledge and skills of new Family Nurse Practitioners (FNPs), providing them with a positive transitional experience from school to practice and an opportunity to become expert providers under the guidance of an experienced mentor.

Penobscot Community Health Care is a high-quality healthcare program that delivers preventive, acute, and chronic medical and dental care to all people regardless of their ability to pay.