A Neighborhood Health Center: What the Patients Know and Think of Its Operation

The OEO-funded Rochester Neighborhood Health Center has undertaken as part of its operation to extend its services to the greatest number of eligible individuals. It has attempted this through outreach workers and the development of a system which conforms as well as possible to the general attitudes and expectancies of its patients. The purpose of this study was to gauge the success of these efforts, as well as to define particular life-factors which might predispose the phenomena of satisfaction or dislike. In general, the data support the idea that Neighborhood Health Center care is accepted with enthusiasm by a significant majority of its patients. Nonetheless, about one quarter of the patients do admit to occasionally leaving the system in favor of outside core. The central issues determining patient satisfaction would appear to be the availability and quality of care, as well as the attitudes of Health Center personnel; our sample indicates that the question of community control rates decidedly behind these others in its importance to Neighborhood Health Center patients.