September 16, 2019

Building Trust in Health Systems to Eliminate Health Disparities→

September 16, 2019/ CACHE

“Health systems play a vital role in enhancing the health of the communities they serve, including historically underserved populations with disparate health outcomes. Eliminating health disparities is a critical aspect of enhancing population health that requires collaborative input from multiple entities including health systems, government agencies, community organizations, and residents. A lack of clarity among contributing entities about the roles and responsibilities of health systems in addressing root causes of health disparities make the challenging goal of eliminating them even more so. This raises questions in communities served about the extent to which health systems are truly committed to advancing health. The resulting tension compounds the historic lack of trust between health systems and underserved communities and undermines collaborative work toward mutually beneficial outcomes of improved health. Health system leaders need to lead in addressing this tension by building and sustaining trust with and for their communities.”

In this editorial from Jama Network’s Trust in Healthcare, the authors suggest that in order to address complex social problems, health system leaders will need to build trustworthy and lasting relationships with community institutions. Read the full article here.

September 16, 2019

Social determinants of health - health care isn't just bugs and bacteria

September 16, 2019/ CACHE

“Democrats and Republicans are coming together around a newly proposed, bipartisan legislation to help states and communities manage costs and improve outcomes for Medicaid recipients. Called the Social Determinants Accelerator Act, the bill was introduced on July 25 by Reps. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), Tom Cole (R-Okla.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash).

The bill received support from health-care industry groups like the American Hospital Association and Aligning for Health. It proposes planning grants and technical assistance for states and communities to address individual patient non-medical needs that are closely tied to health, like food security, housing stability, and employment. It also targets high-need Medicaid patients and improving the coordination of health and non-health services…”

While this is a good first step forward, ultimately, larger systematic problems like multi-generational poverty, institutional racism, and historic trauma will have to be addressed. To read the article in full, click here.

This article can be found in The Hill.

July 09, 2018

United Hospital Fund launches Second Phase of Early Childhood Development Initiative to Address Social and Economic Factors Affecting Children's Health

July 09, 2018/ CACHE

Eight hospitals are partnering with community-based organizations across NYC, with funding from United Hospital Fund, Altman Foundation, and the New York Community Trust.

"United Hospital Fund announced that it is launching the second phase of its Partnerships for Early Childhood Development (PECD) initiative, which partners New York-area pediatric primary care practices with community-based organizations to better address the social and economic factors affecting the health of very young children.

PECD was launched in March 2017 with funding from a collaborative consisting of United Hospital Fund, the Altman Foundation, and The New York Community Trust. The first phase of the initiative was designed to help pediatric primary care practices screen children ages 0-5 for social and environmental risks that interfere with healthy development, and connect them, through partnerships with community-based organizations, with services that can address those risks."

To read the full article, please click here. This piece is from United Hospital Fund.

Articles/Reports

CACHE