A wide-ranging initiative designed to improve health care for patients in Grand Traverse County and 24 other northern Michigan counties is quietly underway.

The Northern Michigan Public Health Alliance is the result of a two-year exploration of cross jurisdictional arrangements. The Grand Traverse County Health Department, Munson Healthcare and Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department are members of the alliance, which has been named as “the backbone” organization for a 25-county Community Health Innovation Region (CHIR) to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of health care services.

The CHIR is important because it will result in better health care at a lower cost with increased patient satisfaction, says GT County Health Officer Wendy Trute, who serves on the CHIR steering committee and is vice chair of the alliance.

“Better health requires a comprehensive approach involving safe and healthy communities, workplaces, homes and lifestyles,” says Trute. “The Community Health Innovation Regions will focus on transforming service delivery and payment models by focusing on patient and family-centered health homes, coordination and accountability of the medical neighborhood, a care-bridge to behavioral health and long-term care and integration between and among health care and community resources.”

CHIRs are community-based mechanisms composed of partners from many sectors of the health care community. They are funded by federal and state funds and coordinated to work together for better public health and to reduce health care costs. According to Trute, the CHIR will transform the delivery of health care from fragmented services to a coordinated system of care. It will focus on the “social determinants of health” and the drivers that bring people to needing health care.

There are five CHIRs across the state, designed to coordinate care to satisfy a patient’s needs, whether physical, mental, social or financial. For example, if a patient visits a physician and the physician learns the patient could benefit from counseling or a specialist, there could be a referral to an expert or an agency.

“A physician could refer a patient to a local entity or health department or agency who would coordinate the referral or provide the service itself, depending on the issue,” explains Linda Yaroch, executive director of the Northern Michigan CHIR based in Charlevoix. “For example, a patient might need a referral to a health specialist or have housing issues or need utility assistance. We’re going to be helping the patient navigate the system of resources in the community.”

Many of the program and agencies are already in place to improve patient care, but some may need a little fine-tuning, according to Yaroch. “Over the next three years, patients will be benefitting from this,” she said. “It’s taking care to another level…It’s very doable, very logical. The steps are in place, they just need some work.”

Less than two years old, the alliance has already been recognized for its work. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services presented it with the 2015 Director’s Award for Excellence in Local Public Health. Over the past 18 months, the alliance has secured more than $4 million in grants to address health priorities in the region, including a home-visiting initiative, a community-based immunization initiative, a chronic disease prevention project and others. 

Others in the alliance are District Health Department 2, District Health Department 4, District Health Department 10, Health Department of Northwest Michigan, McLaren Northern Michigan, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Northern Health Plan, TENCON Health Plan and the Center for Public Health Practice and Network for Public Health Law at the University of Michigan.