Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) operate under a unique mandate: Our consumers comprise the majority of our boards. On paper, this is a compliance requirement, but in practice, it is a community health center’s greatest asset in delivering patient-centered care.
Representation ensures that governance decisions—about budgets, real estate, and executive leadership—are made by the people who have to visit the clinics.
Boards are immersed in the financial and operational mechanics of governance, but a truly patient-centered board can tell us how it feels in the waiting room, if the receptionist welcomes them, if the intake forms are confusing, or if the food our dietitian recommends is actually available in local grocery stores.
Facilities, technology make a statement about quality care
An FQHC maturity model will develop programs and make capital investments to gather and act on patient information. Friend Health currently has moved its Electronic Health Records to the Epic system. Its MyChart apps will mesh with University of Chicago and other local providers and improve not only scheduling and billing but improve staff communication with patients.
When Friend Health opened our expanded sixth medical center in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood in 2025, we reaffirmed our commitment to the 47th Street retail strip–and to dignity in care. A state-of-the-art facility with top-tier technology tells patients that they deserve the same quality of care as any other community. Our roadmap includes starting a Patient Advisory Council to deepen this engagement. Even with a consumer-majority board, we feel the need for broader mechanisms to make patients active partners in community health.
Boards must ensure that staff is trained and engaged in translating these investments into tangible health outcomes–better blood pressure control, higher cancer screening rates, stronger trust. To that end, Friend Health conducted a Community Health Worker (CHW) job training program with Malcolm X College in Chicago. It makes all the difference that our medical assistants want to do more than take vitals and manage charts. They know patients by name, treat them with respect, and educate them on their best paths to wellness.
In Washington, board members are peer ambassadors
A patient-centered board is also a community force. Grants provide the added infrastructure and staff to improve outcomes, but FQHCs face brisk financial headwinds to stay well-funded. When we travel to Capitol Hill, we are not lobbyists but volunteers who advocate for our communities. Seeing the lives the clinic has saved is a power to harness in protecting the safety net.
Years ago, when I first started working in healthcare at Oak Forest Hospital, a mentor stood up during a training session and drew two circles on a whiteboard. She pointed to the one in the center and filled it in. “This,” she said, “is the patient. And this second circle orbiting it? That is everything else. The administration, the medicine, the billing, the building. Everything revolves around the patient.”
Governance is complex work, but it always brings me back to those two circles. The patient is the center. As long as we keep our orbit locked on people, we are moving in the right direction.