THE INDIAN RIVER COUNTY HOSPITAL DISTRICT is beginning to take a long-term view of how to improve and to seek out new methods to improve health outcomes by promoting the delivery of healthcare services through collaboration between private physicians and hospitals and “community” providers.

Community providers are Community Health Centers (CHC’s).

CHC’s in Indian River County include the Indian River County Health Department, Treasure Coast Community Health Center, Substance Abuse Council, Consulate Healthcare of Vero Beach and Carenet.

Several of initiatives involved in developing a program of collaboration between private physicians and hospitals and community providers involve:

1. A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) – not only for children – to identify and prioritize healthcare needs of the community.

2. Creating a network of CHC’s to serve unnecessary and or inappropriate visits to the Emergency Room and inpatient settings.

3. Minimizing wait time for specialty services when it is determined that a patient at a CHC requires a specialty referral, by expediting their scheduling services.

4. Developing web-based platforms enabling near real-time information exchange between provider participants to track patient activity through the delivery system.

Next week we will write more specifically about how the Hospital District is pursuing these goals.

(Source: Maria Serafine. Ms. Serafine is a consultant with and Joan Dentler is president and CEO of Avanza Healthcare Strategies, which provides hospitals and federally qualified health centers with strategic guidance, with a focus on outpatient services and population health management.)