Add-on Experiences

Creating an Accessible Health Care System for People with Lived Experience of Complex Health and Social Needs

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm ET 

Led by the INSPIRE (Initiating National Strategies for Partnership, Inclusion, and Real Engagement) initiative, this pre-conference workshop will feature learnings and replicable practices from experienced hospital-community engagement practitioners working with community members who have complex health and social needs. Community members and people with lived experience can be critical partners to hospitals by offering important insights regarding how to shape various aspects of health care delivery, program design, quality improvement and governance. Workshop participants will learn how to best approach this work from INSPIRE, which is spearheaded by national leaders in community engagement and individuals with lived experience and which seeks to collaboratively design and implement a national strategy to enhance the practice of authentic community engagement in health care. Join this workshop to:

• Gain insights into effectively engaging with communities and individuals with lived experience in a health care setting.
• Use new information to enhance your current community engagement activities and develop more inclusive and equitable strategies for future programming, ultimately creating a more accessible health care system.
• Strategically plan and structure components of a community engagement strategy that ensures meaningful involvement of individuals with lived experience throughout their health care ecosystem.

Community Benefit: Requirements and Key Principles for Improving Health 

1:00 pm – 5:00 pm ET 

Join the Catholic Health Association for a condensed version of its popular Community Benefit 101 program, a high-level introduction to hospital community benefit and the important role it plays in improving community health. During this pre-conference workshop, leaders at Catholic Health Association, Lyon Software and several hospitals will speak about the mission and legal imperatives for hospital community benefit, what programs and activities count, and how hospitals, community organizations and public health bodies can work together to identify, prioritize and address community health needs. Participants will also learn ways to embed equity into partnerships and all aspects of community benefit programming. Join this workshop to:

• Understand the basics of community benefit: what it is, what it involves and how it's reported.
• Learn how you can integrate equity into all aspects of community benefit programming.
• Master the strategies community stakeholders need in order to work together to improve community health and reduce disparities.

Team Up and Take Action: Creating a Forum to Impact the Political Determinants of Health

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm ET

During this workshop, leaders from Dartmouth Health’s office of government relations and population health teams will provide a state health policy overview. Health and the social drivers of health are increasingly politicized, particularly at the state level. To advance health and health equity, health professionals and community members must be able to advocate effectively for or against state legislative and administrative activities that impact health. However, most of these individuals have limited training in policy or advocacy. Activities during this two-hour workshop will focus on how to develop political drivers of health advocacy learning opportunities. Join this workshop to:

• Deepen your understanding of political determinants of health concepts.
• Dive into how state policies drive health.
• Understand critical success factors for implementing a PDoH course.
• Experience a mock PDoH session.
• Map steps for adaptation and replication in different contexts.

The Waypoint

1:00 pm – 5:00 pm ET

The Institute for Diversity and Health Equity’s The Waypoint is a convening for hospitals and health systems that are engaged in the Health Equity Roadmap. It is strongly recommended that the hospitals and health systems where participants work complete the Health Equity Transformation Assessment (HETA) prior to The Waypoint session. This will enable attendees to access their Transformation Action Planners for each lever.

Under the guidance of technical assistance providers, participants will receive technical assistance to complete the Transformation Action Planners for at least two levers of transformation. Join this workshop to:

• Walk through the Transformation Action Planners.
• Connect and engage with peers.
• Learn promising practices from hospital leaders.

For any questions, please contact info.equityroadmap@aha.org.

Caring for Patients Who Are Experiencing Homelessness

Hosted by staff from Emory Healthcare

The Emory Healthcare community immersion experience will include a windshield tour and a discussion about the ways hospital-community collaborations in Atlanta are addressing the challenges faced by people experiencing homelessness.

To showcase one of the ways these collaborations have sought to address the issue of housing as a social driver of health, participants will visit The Melody, the first project built as part of Atlanta’s Rapid Housing Initiative, which seeks to build 500 low-cost micro-units on city-owned land by the end of 2025.

The community immersion experience will then take participants to Atlanta Waterworks, the pilot for on-site medical and mental health services in permanent supportive housing. Participants will hear from the people behind this effort, who continue to seek to implement the vision of improving health outcomes by addressing housing as a social driver of health.

Hospital-community collaborations in Atlanta have paved the way for improved housing and supportive services for many members of the city’s diverse population, making this an important experience for anyone engaged in work to address housing as a social driver of health.

Closing the Health Equity Gap Through Ambulatory Clinical Care

Hosted by staff from Grady Health System

The two-part Grady Hospital community immersion experience is designed to showcase the hospital’s initiatives toward achieving health equity.

The experience will begin with an interactive gallery walk to four different stations, each of which will represent a pillar of Grady’s Health Equity Strategic Plan. Throughout the walk, Grady faculty and staff will share insights into key initiatives and their community impact, fostering a space for participants to reflect and share their own insights.

Following the gallery walk, participants will tour Grady’s main campus and four community-based ambulatory clinical sites, all of which exemplify Grady's commitment to ensuring equitable access to quality health care, particularly for those in need. Participants will have a chance to see the specialized services Grady offers, while also learning about the ways in which the hospital is improving access to preventive and primary care for Atlanta’s diverse communities.

By witnessing first-hand Grady’s work to enhance the health and well-being of all area residents, participants will be able to return to their own communities equipped with new tactics and approaches to use to transform health care access and ensure that all people receive the quality care they deserve.

Addressing Food Access through Collaborative Partnerships

Hosted by staff from Wellstar Health System

The Wellstar Health System community immersion experience will focus on the health care system’s food access portfolio, which improves food security for its communities by developing and sustaining community partnerships.

To start, participants will visit the Catalyst by Wellstar Innovation Center, where they will tour the health care system’s in-town office for technology innovation and learn more about its approaches to supporting food access. Participants will then attend a panel session with WellFarm, a vertical hydroponic farm; Second Helpings Atlanta, a partner in rescuing unused food from cafeterias and bistros; and Bee Downtown, a partnership to support the agricultural ecosystem. The panelists will discuss Wellstar’s participation in Bee Downtown, which supports employee engagement, agricultural ecosystem development and partnership with a hunger relief agency.

Wellstar’s 2019 and 2022 Community Health Needs Assessments identified food insecurity as a leading social driver of health impacting the health of communities served by the health care system. This community immersion experience will provide participants with insights about how Wellstar has decided to address these challenges in a way that ensures maximum benefit to the communities it serves.

Visit the Registration Fees page to learn more about attendance assistance and register for the conference and add-ons.