This presentation will focus on the efforts of one community-based health care consumer organization to build alliances with local health care providers to create a "Community Health Partnership" in order to improve access to care and reduce persistent health disparities and barriers.
A broad community partnership including consumer organizations, providers, local government, social service providers, businesses, faith-based organizations, unions, and more, has tremendous potential to creatively build on existing assets to develop local programs and solutions to address community health concerns.
While the potential for concrete improvements in the local health care system is great, the community health partnership faces significant challenges stemming from local historical and political dynamics between the parties involved.
The efforts to bring providers into coalition with the consumer group involves challenges to transform previously adversarial relationships into alliances. In addition, questions about the roles and obligations of for-profit versus non-profit health care providers in addressing community health concerns must also be addressed.
This local partnership effort is further challenged with overcoming distrust between consumer groups and providers, engaging providers to work collaboratively in a competitive local market, engaging local government officials to view the health concerns of their community as a legitimate government concern and cause for involvement, and ensuring the meaningful participation of consumers at all levels of the process.
Questions of how a broad-based, sustainable, democratically-run partnership will determine what health priorities to address, how decisions are made, and how accountability is ensured are significant issues which can threaten or strengthen the collaboration.
Learning Objectives: N/A
Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, Access to Health Care
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.