Health Services Research

As states reopen and plan for an increase in pent-up demand for health care services, the latest Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) weekly COVID-19 survey summary continues to show a significant loss of community health center access points. Based on an approximate number of 12,000 health center sites, the 1,782 sites reported closed in week nine of the survey represent a loss of one in seven sites or 15 percent of capacity overall.

As the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) weekly reports on community health centers’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic reaches its eighth week, certain trends and areas of concern have emerged. Drawing any definitive conclusions is difficult, since the data are not longitudinal, tracking changes experienced by a defined group of reporting health centers over time. Instead, the information provided by HRSA is cross-sectional – that is, each week, different health centers may be reporting.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) released its seventh weekly summary of COVID-19 survey data on May 22nd, 2020. This weekly update is drawn from information provided by responding federally-funded community health centers on May 15th, 2020. This data note summarizes key findings based on 1,028 health center responses (74 percent response rate).

The data note is available here.