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Strengthen the Evidence for Maternal and Child Health Programs

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Evidence Tools
MCHbest. Forgone Health Care.

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Strategy. Community Partnerships and Collaboration

Approach. Foster partnerships with community-based organizations local agencies to ensure affordable and reachable healthcare services for children

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Overview. Strong partnerships and collaboration with community organizations, schools, and local stakeholders can help raise awareness, promote healthcare utilization, and establish referral networks for children and their families to receive needed healthcare services. By providing clinical services, support efforts, and pipeline/education opportunities, a clinician-established community health center aimed to improve access to healthcare for under resourced populations, including individuals with limited English proficiency. support efforts and enhanced clinical services can further improve access to healthcare services for under resourced children and their families.[1]

Evidence. Moderate Evidence. Strategies with this rating are likely to work...

Access the peer-reviewed evidence through the MCH Digital Library or related evidence source.

Outcome Components. This strategy has shown to have impact on the following outcomes (Read more about these categories):

  • Access to/Receipt of Care. This strategy increases the ability for individuals to obtain healthcare services when needed, including preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services.
  • Social Determinants of Health. This strategy advances economic, social, and environmental factors that affect health outcomes. SDOH include the conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.

Detailed Outcomes. For specific outcomes related to each study supporting this strategy, access the peer-reviewed evidence and read the Intervention Results for each study.

Intervention Type. Collaboration (Read more about intervention types and levels as defined by the Public Health Intervention Wheel).

Intervention Level. Community-Focused

Examples from the Field. There are currently no ESMs that use this strategy. Search similar intervention components in the ESM database.

Sample ESMs. Here are sample ESMs to use as models for your own measures using the RBA framework (see The Role of Title V in Adapting Strategies).

Quadrant 1:
Measuring Quantity of Effort (“What/how much did we do?”)

  • Number of partnerships established between healthcare organizations and community-based entities to improve child healthcare access and affordability. (Measures collaboration infrastructure) Number of community health workers and navigators deployed through partnerships to connect families to care and support services. (Shows community-based workforce capacity)

Quadrant 2:
Measuring Quality of Effort (“How well did we do it?”)

  • Percent of partnerships led by Title V that establish formal agreements outlining roles, responsibilities, and shared accountability for child health outcomes. (Shows partnership quality and sustainability) Percent of community partners led by Title V that are meaningfully involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of child health initiatives. (Measures authentic community engagement)

Quadrant 3:
Measuring Quantity of Effect (“Is anyone better off?”)

  • Number of children with complex health and social needs who experience improved outcomes through coordinated care partnerships led by Title V. (Assesses impact initiative) Number of children who gain access to comprehensive and coordinated care through community partnerships led by Title V. (Measures impact on care access and integration) Number of communities that achieve sustained reductions in child foregone care prevalence through robust healthcare-community partnerships. (Measures long-term, population-level impact) Number of successful innovations and best practices disseminated across communities through partnership learning networks. (Assesses spread and scale of what works)

Quadrant 4:
Measuring Quality of Effect (“How are they better off?”)

  • Percent of children with complex health and social needs who experience improved outcomes through coordinated care partnerships led by Title V. (Assesses impact of initiative) Percent of children who gain access to comprehensive and coordinated care through community partnerships led by Title V. (Measures impact on care access and integration) Percent of communities that achieve sustained reductions in child foregone care prevalence through robust healthcare-community partnerships. (Measures long-term, population-level impact) Percent of successful innovations and best practices disseminated across communities through partnership learning networks. (Assesses spread and scale of what works)

Note. When looking at your ESMs, SPMs, or other strategies:

  1. Move from measuring quantity to quality.
  2. Move from measuring effort to effect.
  3. Quadrant 1 strategies should be used sparingly, when no other data exists.
  4. The most effective measurement combines strategies in all levels, with most in Quadrants 2 and 4.

Learn More. Read how to create stronger ESMs and how to measure ESM impact more meaningfully through Results-Based Accountability.

References

[1] Polk, S., DeCamp, L. R., Guerrero Vázquez, M., Kline, K., Andrade, A., Cook, B., Cheng, T., & Page, K. R. (2019). Centro SOL: A Community-Academic Partnership to Care for Undocumented Immigrants in an Emerging Latino Area. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 94(4), 538–543.

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U02MC31613, MCH Advanced Education Policy, $3.5 M. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.