Huixing (Kate) Lu, clinic director
In Montgomery County, Maryland, there are significant gaps in healthcare access that we at the Chinese Cultural and Community Service Center Clinic (CCACC) are working to address. CCACC Health Center is a subsidiary unit of CCACC, and is an education, culture and healthcare center offering primary care, rehabilitation, mental health and other critical health services for people who have barriers to access services. After 22 years in operation, 2024 was a milestone year; we moved to a new 8,150 square foot facility, with plans to expand our offerings to include pharmacy and dental services.
We currently see about 1500 patients a year, serving community members who are uninsured, underinsured or unaware of how to use insurance and other resources to receive care and services. We help new Americans understand the local health care system and offer multi language services.
Health is more than medical care; there are several social determinants that contribute to someone’s total wellbeing. Our services aim to improve the overall quality of health for our patients by looking at common conditions, building a patient profile, providing tailored care plans and helping patients understand factors like medication, diet and exercise that can improve their total health.
For chronic disease patients, we offer lifestyle modification programs in English and Mandarin that help develop healthy routines and positive mental health practices. The American Heart Association (AHA) has helped us expand our reach to Spanish speaking patients by connecting us with the Holy Cross health system. The relationship strengthens patient care; we receive updates from Holy Cross on the patients we referred to them and are able to ensure their continued care.
In recent years, the AHA helped us launch an at-home hypertension management program and add food insecurity screenings to our treatment protocols. The AHA also provided webinars training staff on evidence-based approaches to treat hypertension and at-home blood pressure cuffs to distribute patients. Providing blood pressure cuffs may seem like a no-brainer, but most patients with hypertension don’t have one, so AHA’s donation of blood pressure cuffs helped us equip more patients with the tools to take charge of their health.
I’m proud to share that CCACC was recognized for our high standard of blood pressure and diabetes care through the Target: BP™, Target: Type 2 Diabetes™ and Check. Change. Control. Cholesterol™ outpatient programs. We’ve been ranked among top clinics for hypertension treatment in Montgomery County.
With our new facility and plans to expand our services, we hope to continue working with the AHA to ensure our health providers have the most up-to-date resources for hypertension treatment. CCACC will continue working to improve the heart health and total wellbeing of those in our community.