Teaming with community partners over the past decade, University Hospitals of Cleveland (UH) created its “Anchor Institution” strategy aimed at addressing core city needs by creating jobs, stimulating the economy, and empowering urban residents to take ownership of their communities and futures. UH has committed to historically excluded minorities and diverse contractors in construction opportunities; to buy local and support diverse suppliers; and create and nurture innovative nonprofits to boost educational and economic activity. For example, through this effort, the Evergreen Cooperatives established four worker-owned companies, resulting in nearly 100 living-wage jobs with full benefits for inner-city residents; UH’s Buy Local vendor preference encouraged their largest supplier to open a distribution center in Cleveland; and NewBridge Cleveland, a dual-mission nonprofit, trains underemployed adults for high-demand health care jobs and engages at-risk youth in after-school arts curricula to kindle a love for learning and education. UH partners include Living Cities and The Cleveland Foundation for support. To read more about this innovative program, see this brief summary [link].
Archives: Stories
Story article on health-related topics.
UnitedHealthcare Housing Initiatives
UnitedHealthcare Community & State has also developed a partnership to improve housing stability and conditions for beneficiaries. By partnering with a local homeless coalition in Ohio, they are better able to locate members who are homeless or precariously housed, facilitate supportive housing placement, and engage the care coordination team to connect members to community-based support services. In addition, the Ohio plan is partnering with a supportive housing development with a significant concentration of UnitedHealthcare members to better connect housing managers and social workers with the managed care coordination team. The goal of these partnerships is to provide stable and healthy housing since evidence demonstrates a clear linkage between housing stabilization and reduction in emergency rooms visits, inpatient admissions, and crisis services. To read more about this innovative program, see this brief summary [link].
UnitedHealthcare Health Teams With Community Health Workers
UnitedHealthcare Community & State is a Medicaid managed care organization operating in 26 states. It has incorporated community health workers into its health team to help members with complex needs who also experience barriers with access to care—to connect them to behavioral, medical, and social supports. Community health workers build rapport and trust with patients, teach them how to utilize the health care system (e.g., the importance of the primary care provider relationship and appropriate use of the emergency department), and connect patients to nonclinical community-based resources to address the social determinants of health. For example, the community health worker may accompany the patient to a primary care visit and help them find resources in the community to better manage their chronic conditions. The community health worker role contributes to improved health outcomes, member experience, and improved efficiencies. Augmenting the traditional health care workforce with community health workers also allows licensed staff to work at the top of their licensure. To read more about this innovative program, see this brief summary [link].
Truman Medical Center Corporate Academy and Financial Literacy Program
In 2001, Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, MO, started a corporate academy. This academy has helped students register for over 8,000 courses, from GED preparation classes to MBA degree courses. Many of their employees and their families have graduated from high schools, from colleges and with masters’ degrees. In 2009 Truman Medical Center began a Financial Literacy program to focus on the economic determinants of health. They partnered with U.S. Bank to locate a branch on-site at the hospital and thus provided access to banking and banking literacy to their patient population and employees. The U.S. Bank invested $400,000 into the program. As a result of the program, hundreds of employees and community members come into the hospital to use the bank, rather than using cash stores, and numerous loans have been made. To read more about this innovative program, see this brief summary. [link]
Total Health at Kaiser Permanente
Total Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being. In 2013, Kaiser Permanente launched Total Health to help Kaiser Permanent members and workforce, their families, and communities achieve this vision of health. By focusing on chronic conditions driven by modifiable social and environmental determinants of health, Kaiser Permanente Total Health works to benefit communities through a variety of programs including: Thriving Schools initiative (300 schools participate) which aims to create a culture of wellness in schools including healthy meals; Every Body Walk! which raises awareness about the benefits of walking; and an incentive plan for the Kaiser Permanente workforce to improve health metrics. Partners include safety-net providers, fresh food providers, theatres, and grassroots organizations, in addition to schools and school-related organizations. Kaiser Permanente funds $2 billion that is needed annually for this population health work and supplemental funding is provided by partner organizations. To read more about this innovative program, see this brief summary [link].
St. John’s Wellchild and Family Center
Since 1996, St. John’s Wellchild and Family Center (SJWCFC), a FQHC network in California, has been working to reduce the negative impacts of substandard housing on health. When first launched, SJWCFC and Esperanza Community Housing Corporation worked together on lead poisoning prevention. From 1996 through 2003, Strategic Actions for a Just Society joined the collaborative to collect data about the health impact of substandard housing to influence state and local policy. In 2009, Healthy Homes Healthy Kids joined with a comprehensive approach around home visits, health program enrollment, medical homes, advocacy, and policy development. Highlights of collaborative outcomes include: 100 percent decrease in asthma hospitalizations; 100 percent decrease in missed work days by parents; 80 percent reduction in percent of clients with asthma ER visits; 69 percent reduction in the percentage of children missing one or more days of school due to asthma; and 69 percent reduction in clinic/doctor visits due to acute asthma attacks. SJWCFC is funded by British Petroleum Settlement/Air Quality Management District Funds, First 5 Los Angeles, EveryChild Foundation, Housing and Urban Development Agency, and Kresge Foundation. To read more about this innovative program, see this brief summary [link].
Priority Spokane: Educational Attainment
Priority Spokane: Educational Attainment is a collaboration of community leaders serving as a catalyst and convener for data-driven improvements within Spokane Public Schools (SPS) in Washington. In the 2005–2006 academic year, SPS had a graduation rate of 57.7 percent (the county rate was 69.2 percent). Following the release of a community assessment in 2009 revealing educational attainment as a top priority of the community, Priority Spokane conducted a series of studies identifying model practices to improve education along with student risk factors for dropping out. Working with resources committed by school superintendents, business leaders, college and university presidents, elected officials, and others in the community, many of those model practices have been put into practice. These practices include: professional training on childhood trauma; a school Early Warning System weighted by student risk factors and aligned with community services; and a STEM Education network providing hands-on learning. In the 2012–2013 academic year, the SPS graduation rate improved to 79.5 percent, almost even with the county rate of 80.8 percent. Priority Spokane has had over $800,000 of funding provided by local and state foundations during a five-year period with partners providing extensive support to the projects. To read more about this innovative program, see this brief summary [link].
Partnership for a Healthy Durham
Partnership for a Healthy Durham is a collaboration on health initiatives that began in 2004. The Partnership, comprised of 475 coalition members, includes government agency and organizational leaders as well as community members. Every three years the Partnership conducts community health assessments to determine and set health priorities for the city. The 2011 assessment identified the following three social determinants as critical to improving health outcomes for residents of Durham: poverty, homelessness, and education/workforce development. As a result of the assessment, social determinants have been integrated into community policies, projects, and plans. Additionally, a pilot medical respite for the homeless has been established and a task force has been developed to create a pipeline of education and training opportunities for local high school students to gain employment. Support for the Partnership comes from local county government with additional funding from grants that support projects. To read more about this innovative program, see this brief summary [link].
Optimizing Health Outcomes for Children with Asthma in Delaware
In 2012, Nemours, an integrated pediatric health system, implemented a dynamic approach to managing pediatric asthma in children throughout Delaware’s major cities and on behalf of the 42,000 children in surrounding zip codes. The model of care addresses broader system issues by using an integrator function—convening multisector partners in support of a shared goal, led by community health worker leadership, a patient-centered medical home, and optimal technology to treat pediatric asthma in the state. Key partners include: state-based chapters of the American Lung Association; state/local housing and public health departments and stakeholders; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; leadership councils; as well as other coalitions and community-based partners. Between 2012 and 2013, early findings from the Nemours’ self-monitoring plan indicate that emergency department visits to the Nemours Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children for asthma registry patients decreased by more than 40 percent. Nemours is funded by a Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation’s Health Care Innovation Award. To read more about this innovative program, see this brief summary [link].
Ohio Correctional Health Project
The Ohio Correctional Health Program (Ohio Offender Project) helps offenders who are preparing to be released from prison develop a transition of care plan to ensure their health needs are met as they re-enter society. The Ohio Department of Medicaid and Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections partnered with all participating Medicaid managed care organizations, the Ohio Department of Health, and the Department of Mental Health and Addiction to begin this program in 2014. Offenders who have two or more infectious or chronic health conditions are eligible to be matched with a peer mentor (peer mentors are offenders who have long-term sentences) who assists them with a Medicaid application and selection of a health plan. The chosen health plan works with the offender to develop a transition of care plan to ensure access to needed care, medication, and assistance with food, shelter, or safety issues, and access to community-based transition services. One goal of this program is to reduce Ohio’s 26 percent recidivism rate by helping released offenders manage chronic health or mental health conditions. The expenses for this program are financed as part of the health plan’s Medicaid capitation rate (administrative dollars). To read more about this innovative program, see this brief summary [link]