title: The quality of primary care experienced by health center patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We investigated the quality of the primary care experienced by health center (HC) patients and investigated whether race/ethnicity and insurance coverage were significantly associated with patients' experiences.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional data came from the 2009 Health Center Patient Survey. Outcomes included 10 measures of patients' experiences with primary care domains, including: (1) accessibility, (2) communication, (3) comprehensiveness, and (4) coordination of care.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients who received care at HCs reported high-quality primary care, particularly regarding accessibility and communication. For example, more than 94% of patients reported that their HC location was convenient, and more than 94% reported that their provider adequately explained what they wanted to know. After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, few significant racial/ethnic and insurance-related disparities were observed. In the domains of comprehensiveness and coordination, insured patients generally had better experiences than uninsured patients. For instance, Medicaid-insured patients had higher odds of reporting that HC staff helped them arrange medical appointments at other health care settings than uninsured patients (odds ratio, 2.04; 95% confidence interval, 1.35-3.09).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As safety-net providers for vulnerable populations, HCs provide high-quality primary care and do not exhibit the extent of disparities that exist in other US health care settings. Continued efforts are necessary to address insurance-related disparities, particularly among uninsured patients.
authors.affiliation: the Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD; Johns Hopkins Primary Care Policy Center, Baltimore, MD; the Office of Quality and Data, Bureau of Primary Health Care, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, MD.
authors.forename: Leiyu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Lydie A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Lebrun-Harris
authors.forename: Sarika Rane
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Parasuraman
authors.forename: Jinsheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Quyen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ngo-Metzger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007348:Insurance, Health; D008297:Male; D017057:Medically Uninsured / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States
keywords: Ethnicity; Health Care Disparities; Health Insurance; Quality of Health Care; Race