Working Together to Expand Rice County Health Care
HealthFinders Collaborative has a longstanding partnership with Allina Health Clinics in Rice County in which they work together to fill gaps in health care and serve as many patients as possible, making the relationship extremely valuable to the Rice County community. Allina Health staff, being familiar with HealthFinders staff and services, will often refer their patients to the organization for care when they think it would benefit the patient. Allina Health patients may get referred to HealthFinders due to certain circumstances, such as being uninsured or underinsured, or preferring to work with a community health worker that shares their cultural background or speaks their native language. The two organizations work collaboratively with the goals of providing holistic health care to as many community members as possible, supporting each other by sharing resources, and aiming to ultimately reduce health disparities in Rice County.
“HealthFinders is a great model to community clinics, and we’re so lucky to have them as a partner,” said Natalie Ginter, Allina’s Community Engagement Director for the southern Minnesota region. “We work together on a lot of special projects to address the health disparities that exist within the diverse Rice County community.” One such project is a new pilot program called Accountable Health Communities. This program involves Allina clinics screening patients who have either Medicare or Medicaid insurance for five designated determinants of health and wellbeing: housing, transportation, food security, ability to pay bills and utilities, and interpersonal violence in the home. If a patient screens positive for one or more of the determinants, Allina will refer them to HealthFinders for assistance with their specific need. Data is recorded on the number of patients that are referred through this program and the number of patients that have their needs resolved as a result of the referral. Several Allina clinics in different regions are implementing this program, and so far, Rice County is seeing very positive patient outcomes with the program – which they accredit to their outstanding partnership with HealthFinders and their resulting ability to connect with and support patients.
Continuing to Expand with New Programs
Another pilot program is in development due to a grant Allina received through UCare to be used for health equity work, with a portion of the funding going to HealthFinders. The program will be a maternal care project aimed at identifying pregnant women who have chronic conditions, such as diabetes or hypertension, and offering pre- and post-birth home visits from a community health worker, community paramedic, or public health nurse. Staff members will support the patient and aim to help them manage their chronic condition throughout their pregnancy in order to avoid complications and further reduce health disparities.
“I’m so proud of HealthFinders and how far they’ve come as a clinic, and I’m happy to play a role in connecting the community to more resources to fill their needs through this partnership,” says Natalie. “Their Faribault facility is a great example of how they respond to the community – they noticed many patients were traveling from Faribault to Northfield, so they opened the new facility to better serve them.” With two HealthFinders clinics and several Allina Health services available in Rice County, the two organizations hope that all members of the community find high-quality health care and health resources as easily accessible as possible.
If you want to support the continuation of collaborative programs through HealthFinders and Allina Health, consider donating to HealthFinders. HealthFinders was featured in this video about Allina Health's community partnerships.
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