Partners Launch Coordinated Care Network for Appalachian Highlands
Ballad Health and the Appalachian Highlands’ STRONG Accountable Care Community have formed a new partnership and coordinated care network with the goal of improving community members’ health and well-being.
Ballad Health is an integrated health system serving 29 counties of the Appalachian Highlands in Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, Northwest North Carolina and Southeast Kentucky. It includes 21 hospitals, post-acute care and behavioral health services and a large multi-specialty group physician practice.
Established in 2019, the STRONG (Striving Toward Resiliency and Opportunity for the Next Generation) Accountable Care Community is a coalition comprised of more than 300 organizations committed to early childhood development, educational success, economic vitality, and health and well-being in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.
At a news conference on Thursday, June 10, Ballad Health and the STRONG ACC announced their partnership with Unite Us, joining both the Unite Tennessee and Unite Virginia networks, serving partners in the Appalachian Highlands. Unite Us is a national technology company that builds coordinated care networks of health and social service providers to connect people with unmet health and social service needs, such as housing, food, transportation and employment.
“For Ballad Health to be successful – and for our region to thrive – we all have to reach beyond our four walls and build partnerships to harness the power of collective impact. When we are all rowing in the same direction, we will demonstrably improve the health of the region,” said Anthony Keck, Ballad Health’s executive vice president of system innovation and chief population health officer, in a statement.
In December 2020, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced the formation of Unite Virginia, a $10 million effort to expand the Unite Us network across the Commonwealth. Unite Tennessee and Unite Virginia recognizes the unique two-state, one-region nature of the Appalachian Highlands, and it will be the first time the Unite Us Platform is utilized in Tennessee. Unite Us operates its networks in more than 40 states, including communities in Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and a statewide network in North Carolina.
Within Ballad Health, Unite Tennessee and Unite Virginia will allow specially trained staff, conducting health-related social needs screenings for gaps in care, such as food and housing insecurity, transportation challenges or other obstacles, to connect with community organizations committed to resolving those issues. The network, however, is not dependent on Ballad Health. Participating organizations will also be able to refer clients to each other – even if the people they’re referring aren’t Ballad Health patients.
The success of Unite Tennessee and Unite Virginia largely depends on the participation of community organizations throughout the region. The STRONG ACC is composed of more than 300 community partners from local and regional businesses, community organizations, faith-based organizations, healthcare organizations, schools and more, working together to improve the overall health and well-being of the Appalachian Highlands. In 2020, the STRONG ACC identified the adoption of Unite Tennessee and Unite Virginia as one of its strategic priorities.
“Healthcare, education, economic success – they are all interrelated. And likewise, social challenges such as housing, transportation and economic stability are also barriers that impede access to healthcare and impact health outcomes,” said Karen Schetzina, M.D., a professor and clinical leader with Eastern Tennessee State University Health and Chair of the STRONG ACC, in a statement. “The conjoined efforts of the STRONG ACC, the Unite Us Platform and our regional community health partnerships are all intertwined and working hand in hand to get upstream of generational health issues and create a stronger, brighter future for our children and grandchildren.
“With a ‘no wrong door’ approach, the experiences and outcomes of individuals seeking services will improve,” Schetzina added. “Individuals will be welcomed into a community of organizations, all working to support the whole person and their family – not simply the problem that immediately presents itself.”
With the software now in place, when an individual is served by a Ballad Health team member or one of the Unite Tennessee and Unite Virginia network partners, their specific social needs will be noted in the system. If, after obtaining the community member’s permission, a referral for a social service is made, the organization receiving the referral will be notified, and that individual’s progress in receiving the service will be recorded. This allows for closed-loop communication, which currently does not exist across the many different organizations in the region.
The system integrates with Ballad Health’s Epic EHR, as well as with other systems and platforms used by community-based providers across Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. In its first year of operation, Unite Tennessee and Unite Virginia will have 100 users from Ballad Health and will be able to accept an unlimited number of community organizations as network partners.
