The Community Clinic Breast Cancer Care Coordination Project will improve breast care to low-income, ethnically-diverse, uninsured and underinsured community clinic patients throughout San Diego, Imperial, and Riverside Counties. The Council of Community Clinics and six partner health center organizations will work collaboratively with each other and with other community partners to address gaps in access, collaboration, and cultural barriers by providing culturally competent care coordination services to clinic patients. 

This project will support Breast Cancer Care Coordinators in six community health center organizations to provide culturally competent case management, referral coordination, increased access to breast cancer screening and diagnostic services, and health education and outreach to 7,000 uninsured and underserved women throughout San Diego, Imperial, and Riverside Counties. The Care Coordinators will work with patients to assure they access breast care services, complete all needed follow-up appointments, get linked with specialists, and get their questions answered about treatment requirements.

The population to be served is low-income, ethnically diverse, uninsured and underinsured community clinic patients, without age limitation.  On average among the six partner community health centers, women to be served through this program are 97% uninsured or underinsured (76% uninsured and an additional 21% underinsured with coverage through Medi-Cal, Medicaid, or FPACT).  On average, breast cancer patients at partner clinics are 88% ethnic minorities, including 77% Hispanic, 12% Caucasian; 3% African-American /African (i.e. Somali and Ethiopian); and 7% Asian (i.e. Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Pacific Islander, Cambodian, and Hmong).

The Council of Community Clinics (CCC) is a private, nonprofit association composed of 17 community clinic and health center organizations operating more than 85 primary care sites throughout San Diego, Imperial, and Riverside Counties. The CCC was established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and incorporated in 1977, and has been supporting community clinics for 30 years. The mission of the CCC is to represent and support community clinics and health centers in their efforts to provide access to quality health care and related services for the diverse communities they serve with an emphasis on low income and uninsured populations.  The six non-profit community health centers collaborating in this initiative are Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo, Comprehensive Health Center, La Maestra Community Health Centers, North County Health Services, San Diego Family Care, and Vista Community Clinic. These partner clinic organizations have strong, developed breast cancer programs with dedicated staff. All six partner clinic organizations have successful breast health programs with experienced and dedicated staff that are culturally and linguistically competent and committed to improving access to care and improving health outcomes for their patients.  This program will build on existing strengths to provide improved breast health services to women in need.

For more information about this project, please contact: Heather Bennett, Grants and Evaluation Coordinator, hbennett@ccc-sd.org

Funded by the Avon Foundation

http://www.avoncompany.com/women/index.html