The Community Health Center, which operates clinics in New London, Groton and a dozen other communities around the state, announced Friday that it has received a $330,502 grant from the federal Human Resources & Services Administration in recognition of its excellence in providing high-quality care to patients and to continue its quality improvement work.

CHC said in a news release that as one of the nation’s leaders in health care quality improvement for the uninsured and underserved, it received the largest of 15 grants, totaling $1.8 million, awarded to community health centers in Connecticut for quality improvement work.

The grant to CHC is part of $100 million awarded to 1,304 health centers nationwide to invest in health center quality improvement, building upon their achievement in providing high-quality comprehensive care.

“These quality improvement awards will support health centers to continue to deliver superior health care that engages patients, improves care coordination and bridges overall access to care,” said Mary Wakefield, acting deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

CHC said it received the grant in recognition of:

• its high level of performance in the use of electronic health records to report clinical quality measure data

• its improvement in one or more clinical quality measures demonstrating a significant improvement to patients' health

• receiving the best overall clinical outcomes among all health centers

• its patient-centered medical home status for its service delivery site

“We are very proud and excited to receive this grant," said Dr. Daren Anderson, vice president and chief quality officer at CHC. "At CHC, we believe every patient has a right to the highest quality health care. Improving quality is an ongoing effort that requires support and participation from the entire healthcare team. Our quality outcomes reflect the hard work and dedication of our entire staff from every part of the organization."

Quality improvement has been a priority for CHC since it was established in 1972, and it became even more central to the organization when CHC established the Weitzman Institute, its research and innovation center, in 2007, the organization said.

The institute conducts research in areas with direct implications for the day-to-day practice of primary care for medically underserved patients.

“We work hard to support our clinical team in delivering high-quality, evidence-based care to improve the health of our patients. I’m proud of this grant as an acknowledgement of our work and dedication and the vital difference it makes in the comprehensive care we provide to each patient we serve,” said Dr. Veena Channamsetty, chief medical officer of CHC, who oversees the clinical care and clinical staff.