Spotlight on Detroit
Thursday, November 6, 2014
 
Detroit
Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s signature effort to lift the quality of health care in 16 diverse communities, reduce racial and ethnic disparities, and provide models for national reform. AF4Q brings together people who get care, give care, and pay for care to work together toward the shared goal of better health and health care.
 
Today's issue of Spotlight features the work of AF4Q's Detroit Alliance.
 
Improving Access to Quality Care in America’s Motor City

While millions of Americans gained access to health coverage for the first time this year, plenty of patients are still struggling to get the care they need. In Detroit, health care leaders are hoping to bridge those gaps through one-on-one support, education, and peer-to-peer learning. And while the Affordable Care Act's insurance provisions have led to coverage for many people, they still face the challenge of finding a doctor or a dentist. Timing is key. Patients who sign up for Michigan's Medicaid expansion have to follow through by seeing a medical care provider within two months.

 
Quality Field Notes: Improving Equity in Health Care
The inherent structure of the Aligning Forces initiative is a major strength of its approach to disparities reduction: multi-stakeholder coalitions of consumers, providers, and payers are vital to reducing regional health and health care disparities.
 
In 2009, the excess health care costs associated with disparities were estimated at $60 billion. A review of health quality data shows race and ethnicity continue to impact a patient’s chance of receiving specific procedures and treatments. For about 40 percent of quality measures, Blacks received worse care than Whites, and Hispanics received worse care than non-Hispanic Whites. 
 
In Detroit, community leaders developed an electronic toolkit organizations can use to increase and improve self-reported race, ethnicity and preferred language (REL) data collection for use in identifying and measuring health and health care disparities. Identifying hypertension as a major concern for African Americans in metro-Detroit, leaders also launched a “peer-to-peer storytelling” video project aimed at improving blood pressure control among African American patients with hypertension.
 
Find MI Care
The Aligning Forces for Quality program in Detroit, led by the Greater Detroit Area Health Council, is helping its residents easily locate the care they need with its Find MI Care initiative. Patients in Michigan looking for a doctor or other health care services can use the Find MI Care website (www.findmicare.org) and mobile application to search for clinics in their area. The app is now available for free in Apple and Google app stores.
 
“A tool such as Find MI Care, particularly in a mobile format, is extremely beneficial in connecting newly enrolled patients with essential health services,” said Joseph W. Ferguson, MHA, FACHE, executive director at Advantage Health Centers.
 
 
Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) signature effort to lift the overall quality of health care in targeted communities, reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care and provide models for national reform. Alliance teams represent the people who get care, give care, and pay for care.
See the newsletter archive
 
Aligning Forces for Quality
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
 
Join our group Connect with us Follow Aligning Forces for Quality on RSS Follow us Subscribe to our channel
 
© 2015 Aligning Forces for Quality