The Conversation About Community Health & Social Determinants Has Evolved. How We Count Hospitals’ Contributions Should Follow Suit→

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The Conversation About Community Health & Social Determinants Has Evolved. How We Count Hospitals’ Contributions Should Follow Suit

“The health care community, in partnership with public health experts, scientists, policymakers, patients, and community members, should reconsider what might be the most effective and appropriate ways for a hospital to be the best partner it can be in the multisector collaborative necessary to impact community health and health inequities and figure out how to operationalize that on a tax form.”

This article from Philip Alberti, Senior Director at the Health Equity Research and Policy at the Association of American Medical College, can be found on LinkedIn.

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Housing for health: Nationwide Children's Hospital presents a case study for treating a neighborhood as a patient

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Housing for health: Nationwide Children's Hospital presents a case study for treating a neighborhood as a patient

"Neighborhood effect syndrome, characterized by symptoms of extreme poverty including blight, housing insecurity, racial segregation, trauma, violence, poorly performing schools, low social cohesion and support and environmental toxins, has debilitating consequences on child health. Health care providers frequently encounter challenges to caring for children from affected neighborhoods, and these children often experience poorer outcomes compared to peers in unaffected neighborhoods. Historically, institutions have been largely ineffective in changing these outcomes with one-child-at-a-time tactics. 

In a novel approach to improving outcomes for these children, Nationwide Children's leaders with community partners decided to address neighborhood effect syndrome as a target for pediatric health care - treating the neighborhood as a patient. In 2008, Nationwide Children's began collaborating with residents, government entities and social services agencies to develop the Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families (HNHF) initiative..."

Read the full press release at EurekAlert and check out the Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families resource on Nationwide Children's site.

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What Does It Take to Create a Community Investment Ecosystem? Insights from San Bernardino→

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What Does It Take to Create a Community Investment Ecosystem? Insights from San Bernardino

In San Bernardino, CA, Dignity Health is helping spark partnerships and accelerate public-private collaborations to ensure all residents have access to the resources they need for a healthy life. 

This article originally appeared on the Center for Community Investment's blog on July 1, 2018. 

Alyia Gaskins | July 01, 2018

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Ensuring Rural Kids are Part of the Health Equity Conversation

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"People living in rural communities experience disparities in health outcomes that are avoidable, unfair and unjust. Rural children especially face socioeconomic, geographic and environmental barriers that influence their health conditions, outcomes and behaviors. Access to health care services plays a large role, but so too do intersecting shortcomings in physical infrastructure, broadband internet, transportation, housing, education and just economic systems. Rural children of color—particularly in the South, along the U.S./Mexico border and on Native land—battle discrimination, racism and marginalization that continues to contribute to the worst health disparities in our nation." This piece from PolicyLab offers insight into rural communities, providers and researchers that are partnering to care for children and families in rural areas.

Jennifer Whittaker Mup | July 05, 2018

This piece is from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Policy Lab Blog

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California Hospital Association - Resources on Economic Stability/Community Partnerships→

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California Hospital Association - Resources on Economic Stability/Community Partnerships

Recognizing the connection between people’s finances (income, cost of living and socioeconomic status) and their health, California’s hospitals have developed innovative community-based programs and activities that address key issues such as poverty, food insecurity, housing instability and homelessness, vocational training, and employment and income.

This piece appears on California Hospital Association’s Promoting Healthy Communities page.

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Partnering to Catalyze Comprehensive Wellness

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An Actionable Framework for Health Care and Public Health Collaboration: 

Health professionals working to protect and improve health in communities and across the nation realize that none of our distinct systems – not health care, public health, nor social services – is fully equipped to accomplish its mission alone. There is mounting recognition that to truly improve health outcomes in the U.S. and curb chronic diseases there must be an interdisciplinary, coordinated, and cross-sector approach to address acute conditions and the upstream social factors that contribute to poor health outcomes. This approach requires transformation of the way the health and human service systems traditionally interact.

In pursuit of this goal, members of the PUBLIC HEALTH LEADERSHIP FORUM (PHLF) and HEALTH CARE TRANSFORMATION TASK FORCE (HCTTF) developed a framework to help catalyze and facilitate collaborative working relationships between the public health and health care sectors. Such partnerships are an essential component of the “comprehensive community wellness approach,” one in which effective, collaborative relationships across sectors ensure more seamless care and prevention services for all. Under this approach, public health, health care, and social service and community organizations intentionally build high-functioning partnerships to address health needs in their communities, and invest in the time, staff, information platforms, and oversight structures needed to sustain them.  The framework outlines essential elements of collaboration and presents key tactics and strategies for forming or reshaping effective partnerships.

Public Health Leadership Forum | June 13, 2018

This piece appears in Health Care Transformation’ Task Force’s Transformation Resources Page.

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