Community Health Connections (CHC) - Program Overview
Including:
Hospitals are committed to the communities they serve. Key components in Georgia hospitals’ vision and mission statements include just that, partnerships with the medical team, businesses and public served, to deliver comprehensive, compassionate care. Each hospital strives to improve the health of their communities by providing safe, efficient, effective, timely, equitable and patient-centered care.
Communities have traditionally trusted hospitals to provide high quality of care, education, and act as a resource for health, wellness, and prevention 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Recent national publicity regarding medical errors and perceived unfair billing practices has eroded that trust. Action must be taken now to rebuild confidence in hospitals and the healthcare system. It is time to re-emphasize to our communities how we are pursuing our mission. This requires helping our communities to better understand the health care delivery system, its financing structure, the hospital’s community benefits, and how we can all be good stewards of our limited health care resources.
Community Health Connections brings health care advocates together to develop tools and resources that aid in linking hospitals and healthcare organizations with the citizen’s of Georgia.
Individuals, Providers and Communities working together
to improve the health and well-being of all Georgians
back to the top
Community Health Connections Strategies
We are in an intense era of public scrutiny and concern about hospitals. Issues that are being questioned are: quality of care, billing and collection, charity care policies, governance, ethics, pricing and transparency. The public’s perception of hospitals’ level of community support has suffered.
A major emphasis of Community Health Connections (CHC) is support and enhancement of the AHA Community Connection Initiative as well as its’ framework for healthcare reform, “Health for Life: Better Health, Better Health Care”.
Health for Life identifies five essential elements of reform upon which we must build if our nation wants to achieve better health and better health care.
- A Focus on Wellness - Some but not all illness is preventable. Good primary care, health education and a healthy lifestyle are essential to improving individual and community health status. As health improves, costs of health insurance and health care can be better controlled.
- The Most Efficient, Affordable Care - Americans will not be satisfied unless and until the cost of insurance and the cost of health care are affordable.
- The Highest Quality Care - Motivate doctors, nurses, hospitals, nursing homes, and others to work together and team up with patients and families to make sure the right care is given at the right time and in the right setting.
- The Best Information - Good information is the gateway to good care.
- Health Coverage for All - Paid For By All -- Health coverage for all is a shared responsibility. Everyone -- individuals, business, insurers and governments -- must play a role in both expanding coverage and paying for it. http://www.aha.org/aha/issues/Health-for-life/07-healthreform-overview.html
CHC incorporates the Advancing the State of the Art in Community Benefit principles to assist hospitals in reaffirming and strengthening their role as a vital and valued community resource supported by the community and public. The community benefit principles are:
- Principle 1 – Emphasize disproportionate unmet health-related needs
- Principle 2 – Emphasize primary prevention
- Principle 3 – Build a seamless continuum of care
- Principle 4 – Build community capacity
- Principle 5 – Emphasize collaborative governance
http://www.hospitalconnect.com/communityhlth/projects/asacb/asacbprinciples.html
back to the top
Community Health Connections (CHC) Goals
- In regard to hospitals, health and healthcare, our goals include increasing:
- Public knowledge
- Public trust
- The CHC plan outlines activities to ensure goals and objectives are met. Revision may be made as we move forward to assure that specific steps/strategies are tailored to accomplish our goals. Partners regularly communicate and seek opportunities to openly demonstrate our partnership and collaborations. It encompasses the work of various departments internally as well.
back to the top
2009 Community Health Connections (CHC) Priorities
The priorities for 2009, of both the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and The Partnership for Health & Accountability (PHA), include:
- Navigating the Healthcare System
- Transition of Care
- Local Community Collaboratives
- Data - Community Assessment(s)
Community Benefit - Planning & Reporting for Hospitals website
back to the top
2008 Community Health Connections (CHC) Priorities
The priorities for 2008, of both the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) and The Partnership for Health & Accountability (PHA), include:
- Transparency -
Providing reliable cost and quality information empowers consumer choice.
Consumers deserve to know the quality and cost of their health care. Health care transparency provides consumers with the information necessary, and the incentive, to choose health care providers based on value. Source: HHS.gov
- Billing & Collections
- Through its membership and partners, the Georgia Hospitals Association developed a guideline to assist hospitals in determining payment expectations that balances the need to ensure institutional financial stability with the mission to care for all patients, regardless of ability to pay and addresses other issues relating to fair billing including guiding principles, eligibility for financial aid, discount payment, collection, transparency, serious preventable events for which payment or partial payment may not be expected and accountability.
- Community Benefit(s) - Hospitals assess for needs and plan and implement programs to improve the health of the communities served.
- Grassroots Advocacy Efforts -
Hospitals’ early roots are embedded in today’s care – that of serving the community. Individuals, Providers and the Community must work together to assure access to quality, safe and cost effective care. Healthcare is a complex entity and public policy often times has unintentional consequences. Working together, policy may be enacted that provide appropriate access to care, sustaining financial stability and preserving the health and well being of all Georgia’s citizens.
- Governance -
Georgia Hospital Association Hospital Trustee Community Accountability Education Certification Program. This program enables hospitals to utilize governance to ensure best practices, to promote the coordination of care and the best use of resources for improved healthcare.
To view the clinical initiatives/areas of focus, click on "Clinical Initiatives" tab above
for more information: pha@gha.org
PHA - Healthy Place to Work Initiative
Upcoming Meetings:
DATE: August 26, 2010
TIME: 3:00 - 5:00pm
NUMBER TO CALL: 770-980-9900
Meeting Materials:
Please note: The future meeting schedule is :
- 3PM to 5PM on the following Thursday’s:
- September 23
- October 28
- Dec 2
For more information: pha@gha.org
Community Health Connections - News
The 4th Annual Southern Obesity Summit
- Date: September 14, 2010
- Location: Atlanta Marriott Buckhead.
CALL FOR BREAK-OUT SESSION PRESENTATION PROPOSALS: The Southern Obesity Summit Planning Committee invites proposals for breakout sessions for the Summit. The Fourth Annual Summit will provide attendees with strategies and tools to use in their work to reverse the obesity epidemic in their community.
Overall Summit Objectives:
- Promote cross-sector collaboration and partnerships to prevent obesity; · Provide opportunities for practitioners to share successful policy and community-based intervention strategies; · Define a Southern Strategy to encourage effective inter-state initiatives and collaboration.
Please visit the Southern Obesity Summit website, www.southernobesitysummit.org
- To access the proposal form, click here.
- Registration and Lodging reservations will be available beginning March 15, 2010. This is a great opportunity to showcase the contributions hospitals are making around childhood obesity prevention.
