Working together toward building heathier communities

Collaboration between health care delivery, public health and diverse community-based organizations is essential to building healthier communities. That’s why AHA joined forces with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) to identify and share promising practices for collaborative community health assessment and improvement. 

Working side-by-side, AHA, CDC and NACCHO gained invaluable insights into the unique challenges each of our respective constituencies face. We identified community-based collaboratives made up of health systems, local health departments and other essential partners that are making a real difference to improve the health of everyone they serve. 

We scaled up these successes for other health care delivery and local health departments to learn, adapt and deploy. And we convened leaders across both sectors to hear firsthand about their experiences and explore even greater opportunities for sustainable improvements, whether their communities are urban or rural, large or small.

This initiative found that when health care delivery, local health departments and community-based organizations work together, they are more effective than working alone. It underscored, once again, that the benefits of collaboration in health care, including unified perspectives, combined strengths and collective brainstorming, are immense. 

Here are some key takeaways from our work.

Successful collaboratives find common ground by identifying where their interests converge – and diverge. 

Finding common ground starts with defining a common vision for a community health strategy and a needs assessment. It requires an inventory of community partners and assets, and a neutral convener. While there is no one right convener for every locality, some options include a state or regional hospital association. A third-party convener can play an important role in facilitating meeting times and places, as well as establishing realistic expectations among partners that have different perspectives. Getting partners to the table can be a beneficial exercise in itself, resulting in a better understanding of shared priorities and limitations, and helping develop trust by recognizing the value of other perspectives. 

A successful collaborative also must draw distinctions among social needs, social determinants of health and health equity. For example, clinicians prescribing physical activity through enrollment in classes at a local park district would be impacting a social need that may be the result of inability to pay or safety issues. 

On the other hand, if health systems partner with government and community-based organizations to develop green space, bike lanes or safer environments, these activities would be addressing social determinants of health.

Successful collaboratives listen to all members to understand the activities partners truly value.

Each partner approaches a collaborative engagement from their organization’s perspective, even when a common vision and goals have been established. Why? Many health systems have service areas that are different from their public health partner. When that happens, partners must coalesce and codify their shared vision and goals. It is important to approach all issues from the point of view of a “guest” at the community table.  

Finally, successful collaboratives are thoughtful and comprehensive with their use of data. Data that illustrate community needs, assets and opportunities are valuable to health systems and local health departments trying to prioritize competing demands. For example, one consortium in the Pacific Northwest reported that the local health department’s ability to provide high-quality data down to the neighborhood level was not only a key incentive to participating, it also served to attract clinical partners to the table and keep them engaged.

Andrew Jager, director of population health at AHA, manages studies and initiatives on performance and quality improvement, clinical-community linkages in the prevention and treatment of chronic disease, and innovation in health care.