The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #49746

Claude H. Hall, MA, MHA, Health System Synergies, 26650 W. Lake Rd, Antioch, IL 60002, 847-838-4405, hlthsyssyn@mindspring.com and Richard J. Bogue, PhD, Richard Bogue and Affiliates, 4419 Farmington Avenue, Richton Park, IL 60471.

Governmental agencies and foundations have increasingly encouraged applicants to employ collaborative strategies in their organization and delivery of services to reduce duplication of services, improve access, increase efficiencies of scale and quality, enhance population based interventions, or for a myriad of other reasons. However, a reluctance to provide guidance may have led in many instances to collaborations that exacerbated rather than resolved their targeted challenges. Many such efforts have produced structures, funding, planning and discussion but little tangible result or measurable, lasting benefit. The authors have promoted such reforms and public/private partnerships and will draw on work in three inter-related areas: published studies; a sampling of opinions and experience from these groups; and governmental and health-focused foundation calls for proposals. The authors will review a series of successful and unsuccessful case examples drawn from national and state experience. They will examine the funders' rationales that shaped the local project's development, design, collaborative strategies, and aims. They will argue that if better criteria were articulated for forming and using collaborative strategies, and if better tools were available to guide their design, then governance and management time could focus on effective project execution and evaluation. Such focus might produce better outcomes and sustained collaboration and support. Finally, they will highlight a series of methods and criteria audience members can employ to shape such collaborative efforts, to maximize their prospect for success and sustainability, and to minimize overreaching.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the rationales employed by a cross-section of federal, state, and private foundations in encouraging hospitals and public health agencies to "collaborate" or "partner" with other organizations.
• Understand through case examples how hospitals and public health systems have responded to this encouragement.
• Learn a series of methods for conceptualizing, designing, and executing collaborative partnerships based on the case examples.

Keywords: Community Health, Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.