Question

Why is the linkage to the local community so important for a hospital?

Answer 1

importance of linkage to the local community to the hospital:Creating sustainable, effective linkages between the clinical and community settings can improve patients' access to preventive and chronic care services by developing partnerships between organizations that share a common goal of improving the health of people and the communities in which they live. These linkages connect clinical providers, community organizations, and public health agencies.

The goals of clinical-community linkages include:

• Coordinating health care delivery, public health, and community-based activities to promote healthy behavior.
• Forming partnerships and relationships among clinical, community, and public health organizations to fill gaps in needed services.
• Promoting patient, family, and community involvement in strategic planning and improvement activities.

Types of clinical-community linkages include coordinating services at one location, coordinating services between different locations, and developing ways to refer patients to resources.

Strategies that improve access to clinical preventive services (such as screening and counseling), community-level activities, and appropriate medical treatment have been shown to reduce and prevent disease in communities. Collaborations between clinical, community, and public health organizations offer a win-win scenario for participating organizations, clinical teams, and patients.

effective clinical-community linkages offer:

• Patients get more help in changing unhealthy behaviors.
• Clinicians get help in offering services to patients that they cannot provide themselves.
• Community programs get help in connecting with clients for whom their services were designed

Resources for Research on Community-Clinical Linkages

Resources for Research on Community-Clinical Linkages

• clinical community relationship evaluation roadmap.
• clinical community relationship measures.(CCRM)
• community - connections linking primary care patients to local resources for better management of obesity.
• Potential Measures for Clinical-Community Relationships—A Supplement to the Clinical Community Relationships Measures .