The greatest challenge to creating successful local health care initiatives is developing a broad and diverse coalition of community stakeholders unified by a shared vision. Without the involvement of community members, health care practitioners, politicians, and others, any attempts to effect change in the health care delivery system to meet the needs of the underserved will fail. Rob Restuccia noted that health care systems are full of players and no one player has the power to get things done.
Collaboration is essential.
Participants in this session explored the trademarks of successful coalitions, the barriers to building effective coalitions, and their limitations. The CCN Demonstration Program was initiated in 1995 in an attempt to transform local health care delivery systems in communities across the country by encouraging partnerships between providers and other community leaders. The underlying philosophy of the program was that it was possible to change the health status of local communities by bringing the stakeholders together and building an ongoing collaboration. However, local action was not enough to create sustained change. These coalitions also had to identify the key policy issues outside of local control that affected their ability to sustain health improvements over time.