Reference no: EM133292319

Authority Health Case Study

Founded in 2004, Authority Health (AH) is a public body corporate organization that collaborates with community health centers and governmental and nongovernmental organizations to strengthen the health care safety net of Detroit, Wayne County, and the Southeast Michigan region. AH manages the nation's second-largest primary care graduate medical education teaching health center program. It also provides several services for its patients: health insurance enrollment and navigation services, community-based primary care services, and a health data portal to share information among all its clients. AH owns and operates the Popoff Family Health Center, which provides primary care to residents of Detroit's east side while training family medicine residents in this community setting. Popoff accepts all patients, all health plans, and the uninsured. AH also manages Pediatrics, PLC, a site providing a full range of services for children while training residents in pediatrics. 

To reach vulnerable populations in delivering care, AH has developed relationships with institutions in the community so that they can be empowered to help support vulnerable populations. These stakeholders include Black Family Development (supports families who intend to stay together); Brilliant Detroit (dedicated to building the success of kids, families, and neighborhoods); Detroit Public Schools; Fresh Rx (provides fresh fruit and vegetables to needy members of the community); and Project Health Community (addresses nutritional needs of school-age children). Based on stakeholder input, AH has begun to develop services for the homeless and support programs to address childhood development. 

Using collaboration with its clinical partners, Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MSUCOM), and other community agencies, AH supplies physicians to Detroit and the region, including federally qualified health centers (FQHC) that provide care to vulnerable populations. Resident physicians take a certificate in Population Health (in collaboration with the University of Michigan), which is integrated with a Community Medicine block rotation and clinical quality improvement projects designed to address the social determinants of health and disparities in health and health care. 

            COVID-19 has impacted populations with significant health disparities as well as care providers who service these populations, including medical personnel who direct patient care and staff that service patients. Examples of those impacted include office personnel, home health aides, family and informal caregivers, emergency responders, and frontline workers in essential businesses or services. AH developed screening procedures for safe in-person clinical encounters and drive-up testing for COVID-19. It also adapted standard infection protocols to protect all personnel at the various clinical sites. New signage was developed for clinical sites to assist patients in navigating the redesigned clinical environment. It educated its stakeholders to learn about safety protocols and gain access to personal protective equipment (masks, shields, gowns, gloves, etc.) to address both their safety as well as the safety of those receiving care. AH administrators are asked to identify/access testing facilities to ensure all the staff in its Popoff Family Health Center are tested for COVID-19 and support the local community who lack access to such testing. 

By adding telemedicine services to connect with patients who ordinarily would receive care through physical visits to the physician's office and by leveraging medical knowledge on COVID-19 to revise portal information to educate, share test results, and answer questions, With printed material continued to be developed for those who do not have access to technology as well as to support wider dissemination to people at churches, workplaces and the like, AH is able to provide a valuable service to the community at large. 

Community Strategy - Pre-Covid19

• Who are the clients and their characteristics in the case above?
• (HINT: There may be two different clients) 
• Who is the care provider and what are their goals in terms of planned outcomes in the case above?
• What are the services used to support these outcomes in the case above?
• Who are the partners and what is the technology used in the case above?

How has the community strategy changed during Covid19 in the case above? Specifically, 

• What new services were added?
• Which new partners had to be brought in to implement these new services?
• What new technologies were used to implement some of these new services?