Issues

Community Health

Community Health

Hospitals are working to partner with their communities to develop opportunities to drive transformative change in community health, care delivery, and health equity.

Poor nutrition, air quality, and living conditions; inadequate healthcare coverage and access; and diaper insecurity, lack of economic stability and mobility, and housing insecurity are all factors that contribute to chronic disease and increased need for medical care.

Connecticut has one of the nation’s greatest disparities in wealth, particularly in economically marginalized communities, which are often disproportionately communities of color. These wealth disparities contribute to longstanding health disparities.

Connecticut hospitals focus on community-informed solutions that will afford meaningful opportunities for these communities to prosper.

CHA’s Efforts To Improve Community Health

Through CHA, Connecticut hospitals have focused on opportunities to gain Medicaid coverage and payment for health-related social needs services to help address the lack of resources and capacity among community-based organizations that serve patients.

Among many efforts, CHA has:

  • Begun a stakeholder engagement process with members, community advocates, and state agencies to prepare for new threats to access and coverage
  • Partnered with the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) to offer education and training through the Parents Recovering from Opioid Use Disorders (PROUD) grant, which provides training in implicit and explicit bias, including in maternity care
  • Advanced doula coverage and participation in labor and delivery settings and maternity care
  • Developed a Statewide Maternal Health Strategy that includes implementation of the Connecticut Urgent Maternal Warning Signs Bracelet Initiative, a doula-provider collaboration project, and Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) patient safety bundles
Mark Schaefer

Mark Schaefer, PhD

Vice President, System Innovation and Financing

(203) 294-7266
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