Evaluating the Attributes of a Successful Public Health Partnership by Using A Simple Social Network Analysis Tool: PARTNER — Mercer County, New Jersey, 2011–2013

Community health assessments and improvement planning processes are accelerated when multiple partners from public and private agencies collaborate effectively.Fourteen organization including 4 hospitals, 9 health departments, and the United Way spearheaded a regional planning process to conduct a community health assessment in Mercer County.We analyzed how member organizations are connected and how resources are shared to recommend measures for improvement.We surveyed organization representatives using the Program to Analyze Record and Track Networks to Enhance Relationships (PARTNER), a publicly available social network analysis tool.All 14 organizations participated in the survey; 2 health departments were represented by the same person (n = 13).We calculated the density, degree centralization, and trust metrics to develop a visual display of the social network depicting the strength, frequency and quality of interactions, resource contribution, involvement, and outcome satisfaction of the partnership.The partnership is highly de-centralized (degree centralization: 12.10%; trust: 83.10%).Members described the partnership as successful in achieving its goals (11/13) and indicated that it improved resource sharing (12/13), collective decision making (7/13), bringing diverse stakeholders together (11/13), and sharing a mission (11/13); 13/13 and 9/13 expected that the partnership will improve overall resource sharing and health outcomes, respectively.Through PARTNER, we demonstrated how organizations were connected and where enhancements were needed.The partnership success in providing a common mission can be attributed to a high level of collaboration and information sharing.Social network analysis of partnerships can be used to demonstrate to stakeholders and funders how a collaborative activity can change over time and if progress is being made.