Building A Culture of Health in Central Brooklyn
From Protest to Health Systems Transformation
Sets the context of repeated safety net hospital closures in NYC and spotlights the economic and social realities that drive shocking health disparities, avoidable sickness and premature death in Central Brooklyn’s black communities.
Describes the specific conditions that threatened to close Interfaith: a combination of egregious mismanagement, inadequate Medicaid reimbursement rates, and long-running government neglect.
Details the formation of the Coalition to Save Interfaith that mobilized the many stakeholders drawn together by the Interfaith crisis and launched concerted community action to keep the hospital open.
Lays out the campaign of widespread community protest and negotiation that led to a decision to keep Interfaith open.
Dives deeper into the context in which the fight to transform Interfaith took place: a major overhaul of federal and state healthcare delivery and insurance systems and the creation of the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program, a state-based effort to encourage innovation in local health systems.
Outlines Coalition’s partnership with MIT to provide research- based proposals for change. Through the partnership, the Interfaith crisis became an opportunity to propose an innovative approach to transforming the local healthcare system.
Highlights participatory action research (“PAR”) efforts to help residents take ownership of community health status. PAR centers on the lived experience and intelligence of those most affected by the problems it seeks to address, based on the premise that they will have the most insight into addressing problems and finding solutions.
Highlights the role of Community Care of Brooklyn (“CCB”) at Maimonides Medical Center in Central Brooklyn’s unfolding healthcare systems reform. Maimonides longstanding expertise in care coordination and community engagement set the stage for the ambitious effort to address social determinants of health.
Describes how a bankruptcy ruling and DSRIP funding put Interfaith back on its feet. The Coalition members fight for a voice in selecting a new Interfaith CEO paid off in the appointment of LaRay Brown. Brown, the first African-American woman president of a private hospital in New York State, brought a clear vision for Interfaith to support community health, well-being, and wealth generation in its service area.
Details the partnership that developed between CCB and the Coalition, and their shared decision to address racial disparities as the only way to effectively address SDOH.
Explains how the collaboration between CCB and the Coalition moved beyond transforming healthcare delivery and set its sights on building a comprehensive approach to address the drivers of poor health together by changing the ways that communities and healthcare institutions relate to each other economically, politically and culturally.
Details CCB and the Coalition efforts to develop specific interventions that activate hospitals to localize procurement, and seed community- based wealth-generating enterprises, thus creating new community jobs and revenue streams that can also improve community health.
Outlines the forms of “civic infrastructure” created by CCB and the Coalition, detailing how that infrastructure helped build the community’s voice and participation in authentic and sustainable community transformation. It also explains how CB and Coalition efforts began building a culture of health by establishing health as a shared value across multiple sectors.
Describes the range of outcomes resulting from the CCB and the Coalition’s collaboration: from preventing Interfaith’s closure, to reducing avoidable hospitalization rates, to establishing an alternative vision and framework for community health and wealth, and more.
Casts an eye to the future. It describes how the Coalition and CCB plan to build on the strengths of the ecosystem they have cultivated over the last five years to continue advancing a framework for health and wealth.
Outlines the daunting challenges faced by leaders in Central Brooklyn in their ongoing efforts to sustain healthcare system transformation.
Details the research methods used.
Describes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the already-overburdened healthcare system in Central Brooklyn. Impacts include the decision to not implement key elements of the Interfaith system redesign that would have reduced the number of hospital beds.