SJHS, Other Hospitals Partner to Advance the State of the Art of Community Benefits

As legislative and political groups continue to focus on how not-for-profit hospitals account for their duty toward providing community benefits, St. Joseph Health System and others have partnered on an initiative to create a common model for notfor-profit hospitals to compare community benefit programs.

This initiative - Advancing the State of the Art of Community Benefit (ASACB) – brings together a group of 70 hospitals from California, Texas, Arizona, and Nevada. The goal of the ASACB is to establish a national model for community benefit that focuses on quality and shared accountability for all community stakeholders.

“We are a not-for-profit Catholic health system whose mission calls it to be concerned for the needs of our communities and especially for the underserved,” said Maya Dunne,Vice President of Community Outreach. “Nationally, we (as not-for profits) need to do a better job of documenting and clarifying how we address unmet
needs in the community.”

“The ASACB model focuses on a common set of definitions and process improvements that create a better understanding of a community benefit program’s effectiveness,” said Dunne. “For instance, does the community benefit program address the needs of those most in need? Does it have evidence-based approaches? Does it address racial and ethnic differences or other differences? Does it increase health access? Answering these key questions will help improve both our practices and our outcomes.”

In the first phase of the project, SJHS joined with other key health institutions to design a users manual to better define community benefits. Because of our commitment to providing community benefit, St. Joseph Health
System agreed to begin the second phase during FY 06 and pilot the ASACB project at St. Jude Medical Center and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

The pilot was successful at each site, and now all other local ministries are preparing to implement the ASACB process during FY 07. The initial implementation steps include:

• Community Benefit Program Review: Every major community benefit program in the
  hospital is to be assessed in accordance with ASACB principles and criteria. The assessment will
  include an evaluation of the outcomes data currently being collected and how this data is utilized
  to enhance other programs.
• Institutional Policy Measure Review: This process calls for the development and
  implementation of written policies and procedures to reinforce and sustain program
  enhancements that involve the Board, EMTs, staff, and community stakeholders.
  

ASACB partners include four other major organizations: Catholic Healthcare West; Texas Health Resources; Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford; and Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital. For more information, log on to the ASACB website at http://www.asacb.org/