SENTINEL CENTERS NETWORK (SCN)

Funding Source: Health Resources & Services Administration, Department of Health & Human Services

Project Period: September 2005 to September 2008

Project Coordinator: Christopher Wojcik, MPH

The Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) at the Health Resources Services Administration created the Sentinel Center Network (SCN) in 1999. The SCN consists of a representative sample of 64 community health centers located throughout the United States. Participating health centers provided the SCN with semi-annual data extractions from existing health management information systems at the patient, encounter, and practitioner levels. These data provided a method for continuous monitoring and evaluating the types of services and the quality of care provided to patients of Community Health Centers.

In September 2005, MPHI-CDMTR was charged with the responsibility of maintaining and managing the SCN which included setting up a data collection and transfer system, developing data standardization practices, and conducting data analyses on an accumulated data set that represented nearly 1.6 million patients annually. MPHI-CDMTR produced an aggregate annual report illustrating the networks overall performance as well as individual center reports for each participating center. In addition, MPHI-CDMTR conducted various ad hoc and exploratory statistical analyses as requested by the Bureau of Primary Health Care for use in policy decision-making.

Project Type: Evaluation, Data Management/Analysis

Reports Produced by the SCN:
SCN 2004 Aggregate Report Executive Summary
SCN 2004 Aggregate Report
SCN 2004 Supplemental Report
SCN 2005 Aggregate Report Executive Summary
SCN 2005 Aggregate Report
SCN 2005 Supplemental Report
SCN 2006 Aggregate Report
SCN 2006 Supplemental Report