Regional Community-Health Center Practice-Based Research Network

摘要

The Southeast Regional Clinicians' Network (SERCN) is a practice based research network comprised of health care professionals employed by 146 federally funded community health centers (CHCs) in 8 southeastern states (HRSA Southeast Region). These health centers serve roughly 1.8 million persons who are medically underserved, 84% are poor and 45% are uninsured. During 2000, there were over 5 million medical encounters from a diverse population of medical users (45% Black/African American, 14% Hispanic or Latino, 0.8% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 0.5% Asian, 0/1% Other Pacific Latino, 0.8% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 0.5% Asian, 0/1% Other Pacific Islander). This year, the Primary Care Network Survey (PRINS) was conducted in a subset of health center practices between February and June 2002. Data from the PRINS survey will provide descriptive statistics to further characterize ambulatory medical care services delivered by clinicians in medically underserved areas in the Southeast and the patients they serve. This data will play a critical role in planning improvement projects, providing comparative data for benchmarking and pursuing funding opportunities to address health disparities in the Southeastern US.