A Comparison of Latino-serving and Other Health Centers
Health centers that are focused predominantly on serving Latino communities face unique challenges. Many of these communities often experience health and healthcare factors that require special attention and focus. The data presented on this page was compiled by our evaluation team, and it highlights key differences that Latino-focused health centers have when compared to health centers serving other populations. The big takeaway?
There is no such thing as “one-size-fits-all” healthcare.
The visualizations below depict how Latino-serving health centers compare to other health centers nationally on key patient characteristics, access to preventive services, and health outcomes1,2. Latino-serving Health Centers are defined as those with patient populations over 50% Hispanic/Latino.
Which states have a high number of Latino-serving health centers?
The 5 states/territories with the greatest number of Latino-serving health centers are California (105), Texas (39), Puerto Rico (21), New Mexico (12), and Florida (12).
Many states do not have any Latino-serving health centers.
Patient Characteristics
Latino-serving health centers face unique challenges, as they serve a significantly* higher proportion of patients who are:
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- Best served in a language other than English (46% vs. 11.9%)
- At or below 100% poverty (70.6% vs. 62.5%)
- Uninsured (32.1% vs. 22.7%)
*Significance was determined using independent samples t-tests comparing Latino-serving health centers and other health centers.
Access to Preventative Services
Certain preventative services are a key focus for many Latino-serving health centers, who have significantly higher rates of:
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- Cervical cancer screening (60.7% vs. 49.2%)
- Colorectal cancer screening (45.9% vs. 41.6%)
- Childhood immunization (41.6% 32.6%)
Health Outcomes
The health outcomes of these health centers have many key points of differentiation compared to other health centers. Among them, our evalutation team found that the health outcomes of Latino-serving health centers had:
- Significantly lower hypertension prevalence (24.1% vs. 30.9%)
- Significantly higher diabetes prevalence (16.1% vs. 15.1%)
- not significant, Latino serving HCs reported a lower percentage of patients with asthma: (5.1% vs. 5.3%)
We have a proven track record of helping health centers.
For the past two decades we have focused on helping health centers bring their vision of serving their communities to life. Although our own initiatives focus on serving Latino and Hispanic communities, our best-in-class training and consulting services are applicable for any provider or population. Does your health center need assistance in building an outreach program? Our Connect and Care initiative reached over 30,000 people in 2019, and we can show you how to replicate that success. Maybe your organization is building a Community Health Worker intervention program focused on a specific health topic? We can help with that too.
Learn more about how our experience in the field of Community Health Workers can help your organization by clicking here.
About MHP Salud
MHP Salud has over thirty years of experience implementing CHW programs and training organizations looking to start and/or strengthen their own CHW programs. For more information about MHP Salud, our services, and how we can help you, please email us at info@mhpsalud.org
- The methodology used here is adapted from that used by partner organization AAPCHO (Association of Asian Pacific Community Organizations) in their 2019 fact sheet “The Health of Asian Americans and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders Served at Health Centers: UDS 2018.”
- Data is from the Health Resources & Services Administration’s Uniform Data System and is from 2018.
- Significance was determined using independent samples t-tests comparing Latino-serving health centers and other health centers.
