While many health care provider organizations are engaged in and provide ongoing support to healthy communities partnerships and other broad based efforts to improve health status, other health care organizations work toward improving health status in limited ways, but are not aware of their broader roles. Still other health care organizations are not engaged with their communities and do not yet understand the critical importance of being a member of their community and developing partnerships with other members of their community.
This paper will address the development of community-based infrastructures and methodological tools to engage health care provider organizations in local healthy communities partnerships. It will set forth the roles and responsibilities of health care organizations in healthy communities initiatives. It will also provide tools for use to engage health care provider organizations.
This paper will present a Community Health Policy that sets forth the roles and responsibilities of health care provider organizations in the improvement of the health status of the communities they serve. Further, a unique implementation strategy will be presented as a companion to the policy that provides a mechanism (1) for health care provider organizations to self-evaluate their commitment to community health status improvement and (2) to identify options for action plans. Finally, the paper will report on the results of interviews of 10 hospital/health system CEOs concerning their perspectives of the importance of community health improvement efforts.
Learning Objectives: Articulate the roles of health care organizations in community efforts to improve health status. Describe health care organizations’ perspectives about initiatives to improve health status. Apply tools and techniques to engage health care organizations in health status improvement efforts
Keywords: Community Collaboration, Providers
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Pennsylvania Institute for Healthy Communities
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: employment