The Expansion of Community Health Care

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey

 

Over the next five years, $11 billion in new funding is estimated to stream into community health centers as a result of the Affordable Care Act, signed into law in March 2010. This could result in a doubling of the current community health capacity, with about 40 million new, predominately low-income patients seeking treatment.

A great expansion in community health could also serve as an economic engine for communities. According to the National Association of Community Health Centers, by 2015, these centers could save $122 billion in total health care costs by providing preventative care that would cut down on the number of patients going to the emergency room and by improving overall health care outcomes at the same time.

So, with this influx of funding and new patients, how can the Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence assist community health centers—indeed any U.S. health care organization—continue to provide exceptional health care and ensure they are focusing on strategy-driven performance and long-term sustainability? The Criteria can help because they have been proven to be a working tool for understanding and managing performance and for guiding organizational planning and operational learning. Many role-model organizations have improved both health care outcomes and their internal processes using the Criteria as a model for management.

Even more than that, the Criteria are designed for organizations just starting out on their performance excellence journeys, as well as for those organizations who have experienced many cycles of improvement. The distinction is in the format: each section of the Criteria (leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, workforce focus, process management, and results) is designed with basic-, overall-, and multiple-level questions to guide an organization. An organization new to Baldrige can begin with the basic-level questions as a simplified management tool.

If the future is bright for community health, I think the future is also bright for organizations who begin with the Baldrige Criteria as a way to advance their organizations.

Comments

[Jeni Fabian, Director of Quality & Performance Improvement]

The expanded focus on community health centers provides an exciting opportunity for organizations like ours - Access Community Health Network in Chicago. As the largest network of federally-qualified health centers (FQHCs) in the nation, we have established a 5-year "Journey to Excellence Roadmap" (currently in year 3), based on the Performance Excellence Criteria. The Baldrige framework has helped sharpen our focus on systems of collaboration, patient engagement, process improvement and strategy, providing the keys to contain health care cost and enhance quality. With the emergence of health care reform, community health centers such as ACCESS must be prepared to experience greater expansion, and we are looking to the Baldrige Criteria as a guide to support our performance excellence journey.

[Dawn Bailey]

Jeni, this is wonderful news. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with the Baldrige framework within community health.

[Jeni Fabian]

Thank you Dawn. I think your post was very timely given the health care climate right now.

[Jerry Salkowe]

I agree with Dawn that expansion of community health centers could improve quality, reduce cost, and at the same time strengthen local economies in struggling communities. And I commend Jeni and Access Community Health Network for their Journey to Excellence. How do we help these concepts germinate in communities across the nation? While money is expected to flow supporting CHCs, most such organizations are struggling to stay afloat and it will be tempting to use those dollars to balance the books or perhaps expand an existing model. Draining the swamp thru long term planning and investments such as those required to support a Baldrige Quest for Excellence, is hard to do when you spend all day fighting off the alligators.

I'm interested in hearing from others who have worked with CHCs as described above. Seems to be a wonderful way for each and all of us to return something to our communities.