Report: Human Services & Healthcare Organizations Partner to Improve Health Outcomes

NEW YORK, July 5, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Addressing both the clinical and the social determinants of health is crucial to improving lives and reducing long-term costs. A new report, Working Together toward Better Health Outcomes, explores the many ways that healthcare organizations and community-based organizations (CBOs) that provide human services are partnering in shared pursuit of better health outcomes.

The Partnership for Healthy Outcomes — a project of Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), and the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities (Alliance), with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) — set out to capture and analyze the lessons emerging in this dynamic space. Information from more than 200 healthcare-related partnerships serving all 50 US states provide important lessons from, and for, partnerships that hope to improve access to care, address health inequities, and make progress on social issues like food, education, and housing.

Among the report's insights:  

• There's no one-size-fits-all formula: Respondents represented partnerships of many sizes, motivations, and contractual and funding arrangements. Many are among healthcare providers and CBOs – but partners also include public health and other government agencies, private insurers, foundations, schools, supermarkets, and others.
• Most commonly, partnerships provide services to impact immediate-term clinical goals, such as reduced hospital admissions, length of stays, and/or emergency room usage.
• 65% of partnerships report having realized cost savings.
• Partnerships rely on an evolving variety of funding sources including, for example, private foundations, healthcare systems, and/or government entities.
• Nearly all respondents said their partnerships are helping them expand their organizations' skills and capacities in network-building, improving programs, and generating new funding.

Working Together toward Better Health Outcomes is available for download and will be augmented soon by in-depth profiles of four partnerships serving diverse populations in varied geographies.

About Nonprofit Finance Fund®
NFF advances missions and social progress in underserved communities through financing, consulting, partnerships, and knowledge-sharing that empower leaders, organizations, and ideas. A leading Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), NFF has $250 million in assets under management and has provided $620 million in financing and access to additional capital in support of over $2.3 billion in projects for thousands of organizations nationwide. Visit nff.org to learn more about our work and follow us at @nff_news. 

About Alliance for Strong Families and Communities
The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities is a national organization dedicated to achieving our vision of a healthy and equitable society. The Alliance works for systemic change by harnessing the collective power of its network of hundreds of nonprofit human-serving organizations across North America as they translate knowledge into best practices that improve their communities. Working with and through its member network on leadership, innovation, and advocacy, the Alliance strives to achieve high impact by reducing the number of people living in poverty, increasing the number of people with opportunities to live healthy lives, and increasing the number of people with access to educational and employment success. Go to alliance1.org for more information.

About the Center for Health Care Strategies
The Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) is a national nonprofit health policy center dedicated to improving the health of low-income Americans. CHCS achieves its mission by working with state and federal agencies, health plans, community-based organizations, providers, and consumer groups to advance innovative and cost-effective models for organizing, financing, and delivering health care services. Its work focuses on enhancing access to coverage and services, advancing delivery system and payment reform, and integrating services for people with complex needs. For more information, visit www.chcs.org.

About Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve health and health care. We are working with others to build a national Culture of Health enabling everyone in America to live longer, healthier lives. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.

Media Contact: Tricia McKenna, 617.553.8020, [email protected]

SOURCE Nonprofit Finance Fund

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