The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #48720

Shelby T. Gonzales, BA, Partnership for Healthier Kids, Inova Health System, 8003 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151, 703-321-1993, shelby.gonzales@inova.com

In 1993, Inova Health System’s Board of Trustees’ task force on community health identified children’s health care as a priority for intervention in Northern Virginia. After two years of conducting and analyzing baseline research, Partnership for Healthier Kids was formally established to meet access to health care and prevention education needs that were identified by the comprehensive community research.

In 1995, Inova Health System and the Fairfax County Government lead this community-wide collaboration by supporting, planning and designing two main school-based program components, an access to care program and a prevention program. Each program was created based on the objectives of increasing the percentage of children who have a source of coordinated primary care for their preventive and episodic healthcare and who receive preventive services including immunizations, unintentional injury prevention, and smoking prevention.

In 1997, Partnership for Healthier Kids established a pilot program in three elementary schools. Currently, Partnership for Health Kids is operational in over 100 schools and has been recognized nationally and locally as a model for connecting children to health care and prevention services throughout three school systems in Northern Virginia. PHK has been successful in obtaining measurable outcomes and has been able to link over 7000 previously uninsured children to a source of ongoing healthcare and to reach over 17,600 children, parents, and teachers through preventive services.

Through the combined private-public efforts, Partnership for Healthier Kids optimizes the essential flexibility of the private sector and the invaluable resources of the public sector – federal, state, local governments and public schools.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to

• Create a strategy to collect baseline demographics identifying the health care needs of the community.
• Develop an inventory of public and private sector resources/programs that correspond to baseline data.
• Develop a coalition based on the inventory results.
• Create a strategy to effectively work with school systems to deliver access to care as well as health and safety education programs.

Keywords: Access to Care, Prevention

Related Web page: www.inova.com

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.