La Clinica Del Pueblo

Patient services - La Clinica's primary care services employs a family practice model of care and encompasses prenatal care, pediatrics and adolescent medicine, adult medicine, and geriatrics. Services focus on preventive care as well as chronic disease management. Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and hiv are areas of expertise as the most prevalent chronic diseases affecting our target population. In 2022, we continued as part of our region's covid response, providing treatment, testing, and vaccination. We were able to provide 10,684 medical services (a 26% increase from 2021), and 11,688 in-person clinical services and 12,814 virtual clinical visits to more than 4,200 unique patients at our two clinical sites in dc and prince george's county Maryland. Clinical services include intake, primary care, care coordination, and wrap around services. As a federally qualified health center (fqhc), we offer services regardless of a person's ability to pay and charge patients on a sliding scale based on household income. This department plays a critical role in helping to break down the barriers to health care access faced by low-income, primarily spanish-speaking patients.

Mental health and substance abuse - the mhsa department provides bilingual, culturally competent and holistic services to address the behavioral health needs of our patients. The department offers group, individual, and couples mental health therapy, using a trauma-informed approach and specializing in family trauma, depression, ptsd, and dual diagnoses. La Clinica's behavioral health and medical care teams collaborate to achieve a fully integrated system of care and the department runs a mental health program for youth housed in northwestern hs in prince george's county. La clinca's "volviendo a vivir" program is the only bilingual substance use program serving the latino community in dc and offers intensive outpatient substance use treatment and recovery support as a provider through the dc department of behavior health. In 2022, the mhsa department provided 4,879 mental health services and 5,158 substance and outpatient services. Its school-based mental health services program saw more than 209 unique students during the school year with a 100% graduation rate.

Community health action (cha) - the cha department is La Clinica's strategy to engage, navigate, educate, and mobilize members of the community through initiatives focused on: health promotion and wellness, sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender-based violence prevention, lgbtq health, infections disease prevention, and chronic disease management. Cha addresses these areas through client navigation to care and essential support services, health communication, support groups, safe spaces, community health workers, and peer-based interventions. In 2022, cha played a significant role in community efforts to mitigate chronic and preventable diseases, organizing over 350 in-person outreach events reaching more than 7,000 individuals and distributing more than 250,000 educational and prevention materials across dc and Maryland. 100% of cha clients who tested positive for hiv or sti were successfully navigated to treatment and care. In 2022, cha increased 72% the social media outreach presence reaching 265,885 viewers and provided 44,239 touchpoints through community-level services.

Language access - over ten percent of people in the dc metro area have limited english proficiency (lep). In order to ensure equal access to healthcare for lep individuals, La Clinica provides medical interpretation in over eight languages and american sign language (asl) on-site and at community health organizations and local hospitals. Medical interpretation is paired with navigation to help clients prepare for office visits, complete intake forms, attend appointments, receive treatment instructions, and arrange follow-up visits. Our model combines personalized attention, community knowledge, and linkages with a professional language services operation, including a streamlined and efficient claims-based billing system. Any dc residents with managed care can use our interpreters' services.

Program integration and evaluation - the program integration strategy aims to improve communication between primary care providers, mental health and substance use providers, community health workers, and language access staff to improve care coordination across programs and services, and evaluate the success of this model.