What Is A Community Health Center?
Good Neighbor Community Health Center (Columbus) and GN Fremont are one-stop primary health care clinics that offer a wide variety of services, including family and general practice medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN care, dentistry and behavioral health. We are located together so you can more easily meet YOUR healthcare needs.
Good Neighbor Community Health Center and Good Neighbor Fremont are federally qualified community health centers (FQHC). FQHC is a federal designation given by the Bureau of Primary Health Care at the federal Department of Health and Human Services. FQHCs are located in, or serve, a federally designated medically underserved area/population. The Federally Supported Health Centers Assistance Act of 1992 and 1995 granted medical malpractice liability protection through the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) to HRSA-supported health centers. Good Neighbor Community Health Center is an FTCA Deemed Agency.
Good Neighbor Community Health Center has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® (accreditation) for Laboratory, Ambulatory, Behavioral Health, and Patient Centered Medical Home by demonstrating continuous compliance with its performance standards. The Gold Seal is a symbol of quality that reflects a health care organization’s commitment to providing safe and quality patient care.
The Joint Commission’s standards are developed in consultation with health care experts and providers, measurement experts and patients. They are informed by scientific literature and expert consensus to help health care organizations measure, assess and improve performance. The surveyors also conducted onsite observations and interviews.
Did You Know?
In 2023,
- 121,271 patients in Nebraska relied on community health centers for their primary care, preventative services, chronic disease management, and support services to address medical, dental and behavioral health needs.
- Health centers were a crucial component of the health care safety net, serving over 7,491 homeless patients in Nebraska.
- Health Centers as always were open to all persons regardless of location, age, gender, sexual orientation, race, insurance status or ability to pay and offer sliding fee scale options to low-income patients.
- 32.7% of patients were children and adolescents.
- 89.4% were low income.
- 69.5% identified as a racial or ethnic minority.
- 1,200 were veterans.
- 2,441 were agricultural workers.
- Health Centers reduced costly emergency, hospital and specialty care, saving $207.5M to the overall health system in Nebraska.
- Health centers provided important economic stimulus to Nebraska's economy. The total economic impact of current operations was $306.3M, with $6.4M paid in state and local tax revenues. Jobs associated with health centers in Nebraska totaled 2,036.
- Seven health centers including Good Neighbor and GN Fremont, operated almost 80 sites in Nebraska, providing tremendous value and impact to the communities we serve. We offer medical, dental, vision, behavioral health, pharmacies, and enabling services.
- Research has shown that individuals who have access to care at community health centers have fewer office visits and hospitalizations, are more likely to receive preventative screenings, and have fewer emergency room visits compared to non-health center patients.
- For each Medicaid patient who received care at a community health center, the health care system is saved about 24% in costs. In Nebraska alone, those savings total $116.3M per year for Medicaid, with a total of $207.5M for the overall health system.
- Health centers lead the charge to reduce health disparities and ensure that high-quality, person-centered health care is readily accessible to the communities in Nebraska.
- Health centers worked with patients to successfully manage their chronic conditions.
- 73.7% of patients have their diabetes controlled.
- 67.7% of patients have controlled their hypertension.
(Information from Health Center Association of Nebraska and Capital Link https://hcanebraska.org/page/HealthCenterImpact)
In 2023, Good Neighbor Community Health Centers cared for 9,946 patients from more than 45 zip code tabulation areas (ZCTAs).
To learn more about community health centers and their patients, take a few minutes and watch this video from the National Association of Community Health Centers
