Creating Effective Hospital-Community Partnerships to Build a Culture of Health

Effective and sustainable hospital-community partnerships are critical to building a Culture of Health. Building a Culture of Health means creating a society that gives all individuals an equal opportunity to live the healthiest life they can, whatever their ethnic, geographic, racial, socioeconomic or physical circumstances may be.

This guide, released by the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET), with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), focuses on how hospitals and communities can develop and sustain partnerships. HRET conducted 50 interviews with hospital, health system and community leaders from 25 diverse communities to determine common themes and successful approaches for developing effective collaboration. This guide shares lessons learned in:

• identifying community health needs and reaching consensus on priorities;
• identifying potential partners;
• creating sustainable partnership structures
• overcoming obstacles; and
• assessing interventions and partnerships.