The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Community Health Centers in Canada and the United States: A Scoping Review

Abstract: Community health centers (CHCs) play a critical role in addressing the health needs of diverse and underserved communities. However, there remains a significant gap in the literature examining their resilience, particularly in crises such as COVID-19. This scoping review analyzed 68 articles to identify which performance indicators have been used to assess the impact of the pandemic on CHCs, and to understand what these indicators reveal about the CHCs’ performance and resilience. The findings revealed that most performance indicators focused on access, availability, and quality of care, highlighting CHCs’ role in maintaining essential services for underserved communities. However, critical upstream primary care performance indicators related to governance, financing, workforce planning, and building resilience were largely absent in the literature reviewed. This gap indicates a need to broaden performance indicators to holistically address all key performance and resilience dimensions, including upstream factors essential for sustaining long-term resilience and equity.