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When it comes to healthcare, trust is everything—especially for patients who may face language barriers, financial challenges, or are new to this country. We are honored to announce that for the second year in a row, International Community Health Services (ICHS) has earned the prestigious Gold Badge Health Center Quality Leader Award, a recognition given to the top 10% of health centers nationwide. The award is a testament to the daily, compassionate work of all our staff.
The Gold Badge awarded by Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is one of the most prestigious awards a health center can receive and is based on rigorous measurements of clinical quality, preventive care, delivery, and health outcomes. But more than just an accolade, it shows how well we succeed in treating chronic diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes, ensuring children get immunized, and providing essential screenings, all by creating a safe and welcoming haven where our patients feel seen and cared for.
Building on last year’s achievement, ICHS earned the Gold Badge once again—this time as the only health center in Washington to receive the honor, marking two unprecedented distinctions. While the award is measured by reports and statistics, ICHS Chief Health Officer Dr. Jeffrey Gibbs shared that ICHS takes care of patients and families holistically every day.
“One of the things that guides me is that our focus is not forcing the high blood pressure metric to be good,” Gibbs said. “The focus is we need to take really good care of our high blood pressure patients, and if we do that, then good scores will just be a natural byproduct of that. It’s kind of a mindset. We don’t focus so much on the number, but focus on the patients and what they need.”
Wendy Kim, ICHS Quality and Accreditation Manager, oversees the quality of services across ICHS’s four clinics. Kim shared that ICHS exceeded most of those national standards in chronic disease measurement, cancer screenings, and child immunization. The strong emphasis on holistic quality and attention is necessary in part because of the demographics of ICHS’s patient base, she said.
(At left) Eligibility specialist Anh Le assists a patient at the ICHS International District clinic. During initial appointments and after life changes, Anh and her team help patients understand federal and state program eligibility, and receive care and access to services, April 29, 2024.
With locations throughout King County, and four main clinics in Chinatown-International District, Holly Park, Shoreline, and Bellevue, ICHS largely serves patients who speak over 90 languages and many living near the federal poverty level. Serving patients with high quality care has as much to do with minimizing language and financial barriers as it does health statistics.
“I’m first generation and watching my parents struggle with getting care in America was hard,” Kim said. “I was the one who was translating at a very young age, at age 7, having to translate through the healthcare system. I didn’t know at the time there was an organization like ICHS that existed. So now that I’m here, I’m able to bring my parents to ICHS to provide them care, and they don’t have to worry about having to find a translator, or having to figure out what the doctor said.”
Kim said that many patients that come through ICHS’s doors feel safe because there is someone that looks like them who is providing them care, someone who speaks their language and who understands their cultures without feeling judgment.
Establishing trust is essential in establishing healthcare access because otherwise, many patients don’t make it through the clinic doors, Gibbs explained.
“This is a population that traditionally does not have good access to healthcare and may not have the best outcomes,” Gibbs said. “But what ICHS tries to do is to make sure all of these patients feel comfortable and that they have a home, a trusted place where they can get their health care, whether it’s for an acute problem or routine checkups. And I think because of that trust, patients are willing to do what they need to do to ensure that they have the highest quality health care.”
Kim shared that the continuous recognition of ICHS as a health center is, in many ways, also a recognition of ICHS as a safe haven for those who are disenfranchised from the healthcare system.
(At right) On any given day, advance practice provider Atalaya Ombati sees both children and adults, offering preventive care as well as diagnosing and treating medical conditions, May 29, 2025, ICHS Shoreline Medical & Dental Clinic.
Especially for immigrants who lack health insurance, ICHS offers an out-of-pocket sliding scale that allows them to pay for what they can afford and still expect excellent care. This system requires both providers and patients to continuously meet each other with compassion and understanding of the challenges the healthcare system poses. And yet, its success indicates what is possible when health administrators, doctors, and patients meet each other on the human level.
“Our organization, our people, our staff, our providers, they all decide to choose to show up every day for our patients,” Kim said. “They decide to go the extra mile for our patients. They’re giving their heart to it, day-in and day-out for our patients. So the award is a choice that our staff makes every day. When our community comes together, the patients, the providers, the staff, we’re building something truly great. This award isn’t just an honor for us, but also for the patients themselves, because they’re giving us their trust every day to continue working towards this.”
If earning the Gold Badge Health Center Quality Leader Award for two years running is any indication, the care at ICHS is something to be celebrated. Still, for Kim and Dr. Gibbs, the mission continues. Gibbs says that his next focus is to improve measures for blood pressure control. As for Kim, her eyes are set on beating ICHS’s own record—and to attain HRSA’s National Quality Leader Award next.
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