America’s Essential Hospitals has launched a new website to support essential hospitals and their partners in efforts to advance population health.
Essential Communities — a product of Essential Hospitals Institute, the research entity of the association — is a hub for population health–related resources, member best practices, and learning opportunities for essential hospitals.
Our more than 300 members provide services vital to the health of their communities. But they recognize that the health of a community depends not only on health care, but also on many other factors — including social determinants. Our hospitals are increasingly reaching beyond their walls to understand what promotes or hinders health in their communities and to partner with local organizations. The Institute in 2016 released a road map to help further drive community-integrated health care among our member hospitals.
A key feature of the new Essential Communities website is a community program map, which hospitals can use to search or share population health initiatives from around the country. The site also features a resource library and information about current and future Institute educational programming.
Essential Communities will be updated regularly with new content. It will provide a growing platform for essential hospitals to learn from each other as they work toward improving health in their communities.