Our Mission:
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The Foundation for Healthy Communities
is a nonprofit corporation whose mission
is to improve health and health care
delivery in New Hampshire. Founded in
1995, its partnerships include the state’s
hospitals, health plans, clinicians, home
care agencies and public policy leaders.
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The Foundation’s mission is achieved
through various initiatives that work
toward improving provider performance,
health care system enhancement, and
ensuring access to care for all.
In addressing New Hampshire’s ever-changing health care needs,
the Foundation’s projects are always evolving. You’ll find up-to-date information
on Foundation initiatives, partnerships, research, downloads of publications,
and links to helpful health care resources by visiting www.healthyNH.com.
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PERFORMANCE
IMPROVING
H E A LT H A N D
H E A LT H C A R E
DELIVERY IN
SYSTEM
ACCESS
NEW HAMPSHIRE
125 Airport Road • Concord, NH 03301
Phone: (603) 225-0900 • Fax (603) 225-4346
www.healthynh.com
Partnering
for Innovation
Highlights of
our Current
Initiatives /
Performance Improvement Project
Since 2003, all 26 of New
Hampshire’s acute care hospitals
have been voluntarily collecting
detailed information about their
processes for treating patients
with heart attacks, congestive
heart failure and pneumonia.
The Foundation has established
a forum where clinicians and
quality professionals meet quarterly
to share their hospitals’ project
results, discuss relevant policies and
procedures, identify best practices
and learn from others’ experiences.
New Hampshire consistently ranks
high in national comparative
studies
of these
process
measures.
Community Prevention
and Treatment Initiatives
Rural Collaborative
for Health Improvement Project
The New Hampshire
Partnership for End-of-Life Care
The Foundation is working in
several communities to study how
clinical and community processes
produce the
most effective
prevention
and treatment
strategies.
Information
from these
evidencebased strategies is being used
to create a model to improve
community health in New
Hampshire. The principal focus
in developing the model is on
cardiovascular disease with an
emphasis on physical activity and
cholesterol. The goal is to learn
how to maximize desired health
outcomes by linking primary care
and public health strategies.
The Greater Nashua Health
Community Collaborative is
one community participating
in the model’s development.
The Collaborative is focusing
its attention on the prevention
of cardiovascular disease by
increasing physical fitness and
eliminating secondhand smoke.
The goal of the Rural CHIP
is to create new partnerships
that support and strengthen the
delivery of quality health services
in rural areas of New Hampshire.
The Foundation is working with
critical access hospitals and other
health providers to implement
quality initiatives and network
development activities.
The Foundation has taken a lead
role in helping people plan for their
health care, talk about their choices
and make sure
they are respected.
The Partnership
for End-of-Life
Care is a group of
organizations working
to promote advance
care planning and
improve communication about “do not
attempt resuscitation” orders through
the Physician Orders Regarding
Treatment (PORT) program. Visit www.
healthyNH.com for information on the
Partnership’s Advance Care Planning
Guide for consumers.
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/ A decade of success...
Successful Initiatives that the Foundation
carried out earlier in its first decade include:
The Nursing Workforce Partnership
Project, a collaborative effort with Workforce
Opportunity Council, Inc. to address nursing
recruitment and retention issues by distributing
$2.7 million to more than 2,100 nurses in
tuition assistance and training programs.
Covering Kids worked to design new systems
in hospitals to enroll children in the state’s free
or low-cost health insurance program.
“Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby” and
“Growing Up healthy” books distributed to
parents statewide with information on prenatal,
childbirth and post-partum care, child care and
other resources in New Hampshire.
The New Hampshire Risky Drinking
Prevention Project introduced an alcohol
screening and brief intervention (SBI) into
primary care to learn how to better address
misuse of alcohol.
Medication Bridge
The New Hampshire Medication
Bridge Program helps uninsured
and underinsured people access free
prescription assistance. Since the
program’s creation, more than 70 health
provider sites have obtained $100
million in medications for more than
16,000 patients.
More information
about applying
on-line is
available at www.
healthyNH.com.
NH Health
Access Network
The Foundation developed the
NH Health Access Network to
provide financial help to improve
access to health care for low-income
children and adults statewide. The
Network is a voluntary collaboration
of more than 150 health care provider
organizations—doctors, hospitals and
others—to strengthen the health care
safety net with more affordable access to
emergency care, primary care, specialty
care, and inpatient services. A common
application and a minimum sliding fee
scale help provide portability among
health providers for eligible state
residents seeking financial help for their
medical costs.
/ Partnering for Innovation:
The Foundation has brought together
the medical directors of health plans in
New Hampshire and others to develop
several common clinical practice guidelines
and tools, which help doctors so they can
spend more time with patients.
Updated every two years, “The N.H.
Prevention Guidelines” displays the
recommended schedule for vaccinations
and screenings adopted by all the health
plans in New Hampshire.
“The N.H. Prescription Guide”
gives health providers a list of the most
commonly prescribed generic and brand
name drugs preferred by health plans in
New Hampshire.
Clinical guidelines offer health
providers guidance on the diagnosis and
treatment of diseases that affect many
people. “ADHD Guidelines for the
Recognition and Treatment of Attention
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in
School-aged Children” is our most recent
guideline in a poster-sized reference to
help parents, teachers, school nurses and
doctors identify children with ADHD. The
guide uses the most proven methods of
diagnosis and treatment from nationally
recognized resources.
“The Uniform Application for
Credentialing” simplifies credentialing
for licensed clinicians; they now fill out
just one form, regardless of the number of
hospitals or health plans for which they are
being credentialed.