LCH's mission is to help low-income residents of southern Chester County to stay healthy, build strong families, and lead productive lives by offering high-quality, culturally welcoming services. Our organization is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), committed to providing a health safety net for the thousands of people in our community who cannot access other health care. Moreover, we are committed to having the highest quality care possible, and to making our care as accessible as possible to those we serve. We know that optimal health relies on a range of factors known as the "social determinants of health. " Access to health care is one factor affecting an individual's chances for good health; however, there are numerous other factors just as important. For example, health coverage, education, and household income are all powerfully connected to good health outcomes. For this reason, LCH has a larger vision than simply providing health care to those in need. We seek to address all of the social determinants of health, helping each individual improve their education, financial stability and self-sufficiency, and mental health. We know that helping each client improve each of these aspects of their lives will yield better health outcomes down the road.

LCH has multiple programs dedicated to addressing the various social determinants of care, but all work together using a model called Integrated Person Centered Services (IPCS). This model has been shown to be effective in maximizing positive health outcomes. LCH coordinates the various services we offer to clients through our comprehensive database, LCH Centricity, and was awarded this year the status of Level Three Patient Centered Medical Home by the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA), a recognition of the highest possible level of quality and accessibility of care. LCH's health services include primary care, prenatal and well infant care, acute care, pediatric care, chronic disease management, and health education. We offer behavioral health care as well, seamlessly integrated with our physical health care. Our team of caseworkers offer comprehensive social services to clients, helping them meet a wide range of needs and gain benefits that will help their families thrive. LCH employs a staff attorney to help families facing legal challenges. Finally, we offer a range of adult education programs and workforce development services to help our clients gain a better command of the English language, prepare for the GED (high school equivalency) exam, prepare for the U. S. Citizenship exam, and secure better employment to advance their family's long-term financial prospects. Equipped with help in all of these areas, our clients can improve their physical, mental, and financial well-being, and ultimately become stronger and more productive members of our community.

LCH employs a staff of highly trained and compassionate individuals dedicated to our mission. Our health centers in Kennett Square and Oxford employ physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and medical assistants. This staffing enables us to provide a true medical home, as clients can see their usual provider on every visit. Likewise, our Dental Center is staffed by a dentist, a dental hygienist, and two dental assistants. LCH employs three licensed behavioral health counselors, who offer mental health care to clients at both our Kennett and Oxford facilities. All of these mental health professionals, and most of our clinical providers, are bilingual in English/Spanish. Our social services team includes caseworkers, trained health insurance navigators, and a staff attorney. Our adult education and workforce development team bring classes and programs to clients across our service area, in both English and Spanish. LCH has been providing culturally welcoming services for more than 40 years. We are committed to offering the highest quality programs possible, and also to responding to our clients' needs and concerns. More than half of our Board of Directors are users of our health center services. We conduct at least one comprehensive client survey each year, and hold regular in-person feedback sessions to invite client comment on our services. These sessions and surveys have resulted in many service improvements over the years.

As a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), LCH collects a wide range of data, both qualitative and quantitative. All program data - for our health services as well as all other services - is stored on our database, LCH Centricity. This system allows us to analyze the utilization of each services, our progress toward each of our goals, and the extent to which our different services are working together to assure better outcomes for our clients. Centricity allows us to design "data dashboards" for each of our programs, which we use to assess progress toward goals as diverse as total number of clients year to date, number of uninsured clients enrolled into health coverage, percentage of diabetic patients with controlled blood sugar levels, cross-utilization of physical and behavioral health care, citizenship exam pass rates, and waiting room wait times. At the beginning of each year, we set many goals for the year, and these dashboards help us chart our progress month by month. Different teams of stakeholders - such as clinical providers, our caseworker team, and the LCH Board of Directors - review the reports pertinent to them each month, assess progress toward goals, and offer suggestions for improvement if progress is not on target.

LCH has progressed a great deal in the past five years. We became a Federally Qualified Health Center in 2012, a status achieved through years of planning to assure a consistently high level of care and accountability. In 2014, we added behavioral health care to our services, integrated fully with our physical health services. That same year, we began the transition from our old health center database, AllScripts, to LCH Centricity. This transition was completed in 2015, and enabled us to practice a truly integrated, patient-centered model of care. In late 2015, LCH opened our first satellite site, the Oxford Community Health Center, to better serve a community of growing need in the western end of our service area. In early 2017, we opened our Dental Center in Kennett Square, in response to a huge unmet need in southern Chester County for oral health care. All of these locations and services now work together for the benefit of those we serve. Our next planned advance is the expansion of our Oxford site. At present, it is a small, three-exam-room health center, and the local need has quickly outstripped the capacity of this site. In addition, we have identified a large unmet need for mental health services in the Oxford area. Our plan in 2018 is to expand to a much larger Oxford location, add physical and mental health capacity to this new site, and partner with another community organization to offer a higher level of mental health care for those in need (specifically serious mental illness and addiction).