Examples of Building Community Health | Blogrige The Official ...

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey

Not too long ago, I did some research into the publicly available?award application summaries of Baldrige Award recipients in the health care category on how they built community health (that?s item 1.2c in the Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence).

The research is inspiring. These health care organizations are able to provide role-model services and operations?and care for their communities, too. Here are just some examples:

• 2009 Baldrige Award winner AtlantiCare partners with schools, businesses, and other stakeholders to counter drug use, gangs, and other harmful activities, and its Center for Community Health partners with schools, businesses, and other stakeholders to improve overall community well-being and to promote children?s nutrition and fitness. Examples include immunization of school-aged children, two federally designated Weed and Seed programs, gun buy-back programs, seminars, mobile health programs and services, screenings, and a program designed to address childhood obesity managed through the local school systems. As one of two safety net hospitals in its region, AtlantiCare?s medical center annually provides about 90 percent of the free medical care to people in need. Further, at the time it received the Baldrige Award, AtlantiCare provided nonhospital charity care through three Mission Healthcare facilities, with growth in patient visits from 8,277 in 2004 to 26,032 in 2008.

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• 2007 Baldrige Award winner Mercy Health System founded the House of Mercy Homeless Center to help the growing number of emergency room patients who had been listing the family car as their primary address. The only shelter of its kind operated by a health system, the House of Mercy can shelter up to 25 women and children for 30 days at a time. Since its inception (through 2007), the center has provided shelter for more than 3,800 individuals, including 1,900 children. Further, at the time it received the Baldrige Award, Mercy annually provided more than $32 million in uncompensated care and free services to local communities; it also sponsors health screenings, community education classes, and other activities designed to meet community needs.

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• 2011 Baldrige Award winner Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) supports and strengthens underserved communities through (1) its School-Based and Community Health Program, which takes primary and preventive care to Detroit classrooms; (2) the Institute on Multicultural Health, which provides research on health and health care ethnic and racial disparities, coordination of the Healthcare Equity Campaign, and community-based health screenings and education; (3) a partnership with the Detroit Wayne County Health Authority to facilitate care coordination and enhance efficiencies; and (4) SandCastles, which offers open-ended grief support for children and families suffering the loss of a loved one. In addition, HFHS supports more than 150 organizations that contribute to the overall health and wellness of its community, including YMCA?s school-based ?Early Bird Fun and Fitness? program to provide Detroit Public School students with opportunities for physical exercise after the school system cut such programming.

These are truly?inspirational examples of how to build community health. What examples have you seen?

Also, how might you use Baldrige application summaries to search for role-model practices in?other areas?

Source: http://nistbaldrige.blogs.govdelivery.com/2013/07/11/examples-of-building-community-health/

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