Detroit, MI
“I knew I needed to make a change and be proactive in reducing my risk for heart disease. The exercise program helped me lose over 25 pounds, and my blood pressure is down to 112/65. The personal trainers were amazing. I have more energy than ever,” said Gloria Kennedy.
Kennedy, 53, a Detroit resident and mother of two, is a testimonial to the importance of the Cardiac Disease Prevention Exercise Program led by the Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) Detroit initiative, headed by the Greater Detroit Area Health Council (GDAHC). After a routine checkup, Kennedy discovered...
The Greater Detroit Area Health council (GDAHC), which leads the AF4Q initiative in Detroit, wanted to make it more convenient for people in southeast Michigan with diabetes to learn how to manage their care better. Inspired by an earlier effort funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to identify interventions with the most impact, in 2008 GDAHC started developing a pilot program to provide diabetes self-management education (DSME) sessions to local employees where they work.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s 16 Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) communities are showing that bringing together the people who give care, get care and pay for care improves quality.
After six years, AF4Q communities have built transformative partnerships, often where none existed before:
- Data on quality, cost and patient experience measures are being collected and publicly reported.
- Practice coaches are deployed in hundreds of primary care practices.
- Hospitals are improving care from the emergency department (ED) to...
.JPG)
The Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) initiative in Detroit is led by the Greater Detroit Area Health Council (GDAHC), a multi-stakeholder regional health coalition that has served the residents of seven counties in southeastern Michigan for more than 60 years. Members of this nonprofit community organization represent the region’s major purchasers (corporations and labor organizations), health systems and health plans, insurers, government, universities, physician groups, consumer and community opinion leaders, as well as other health care organizations and associations. As the region’s foremost health care coalition, GDAHC provides a forum for multi-stakeholder collaboration and partnerships to develop, facilitate, and execute promising solutions aimed at improving cost, quality, and access to care.
Visit the Alliance Website Here.
Visit the Alliance Public Reporting Website Here.
