Insights
Field notes for the teams carrying the work behind care.
Operational realities, hard-won lessons, and a clear-eyed look at what it actually takes to run a community health center today.
Volume One
The Operational Layer.
Three field notes for the teams carrying the work behind care. Scroll slowly — every page turn opens the next read.
03 notes32 million patients, and no permanent funding.
One in eleven people in the country rely on a community health center. Nine in ten of their patients live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. The federal money behind it has to be renewed every couple of years.
Read the field note02 / 03
Field notes · 03 reads
Two hours of paperwork for every hour of care.
43 prior authorizations per physician, per week. 5.9 hours a day inside the chart. In a health center that work has nowhere to go but onto people already stretched.
Read · ~4 min32 million patients, and no permanent funding.
One in eleven people in the country rely on a community health center. Nine in ten of their patients live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. The federal money behind it has to be renewed every couple of years.
Read · ~4 minFive ways a health center loses money it already earned.
Most of the money a health center loses is not money it failed to win. It is money for care already delivered, lost somewhere between the visit and the payment.
Read · ~4 min