The pursuit of health equity is the subject of a new collaboration between health systems – including Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals – health insurers, and city government in Philadelphia.
The new effort, dubbed “Accelerate Health Equity,” will seek to bring “…together organizations across the region to produce tangible improvement in health inequities, and ultimately achieve measurable, positive changes in health outcomes in Philadelphia.” Among the participants in the endeavor are AmeriHealth Caritas, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the City of Philadelphia, Drexel University, Independence Blue Cross, Jefferson Health, Main Line Health, Penn Medicine, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Temple Health, and Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic.
The group envisions its approach to pursuing health equity and addressing social determinants of health as consisting of three components:
- Launching Pilot Programs: Individual pilot programs tied to identified areas that impact health outcomes.
- Measuring Progress: A publicly available digital health equity dashboard based on data provides an in-depth view of 16 health equity challenge areas and will also track progress of pilot programs.
- Collaborating to Scale: Pilot programs will be evaluated and information will be disseminated to inform health and service providers and quickly scale successful pilot programs to expand their reach and impact.
The 16 health equity challenges the group intends to tackle at the start are:
- behavioral health
- cardiovascular health
- colorectal cancer
- community violence
- COVID-19
- digital access
- food access
- housing access
- maternal and infant health
- neighborhood conditions
- obesity and diabetes
- primary care access
- racism and discrimination in health care
- socioeconomic disadvantage
- specialty care access
- substance abuse and abuse
Learn more about this new approach to addressing health equity in an urban environment in the Philadelphia Inquirer article “Philly hospitals and key insurers plan novel effort with the city to improve health equity;” from the Accelerate Health Equity web site, which identifies the venture’s participants and leadership and offers additional information; and from an introductory video.