Seattle Children’s Hospital
Connection to Moving Health Care Upstream
For more than a century, Seattle Children’s has worked to improve the health of its patients and their families through a variety of partnerships with the community and across Washington state. Current efforts include collaborating with the Washington State Health Care Authority (Medicaid agency) and local Accountable Communities of Health.
Seattle Children’s and these partner organizations work to transform health and wellness at a local level through projects that promote overall well-being, including development of medical, non-medical and non-traditional programs that promote wellness by tackling various social determinants of health transformation initiatives.
During Seattle Children’s recent strategic planning process, Moving Health Care Upstream (MHCU) provided valuable guidance and support. We are proud that the new plan includes a strategic initiative specifically focused on “Community Health.” It reinforces Seattle Children’s commitment to continue our vigorous commitment to community-wide care, along with providing education and advocacy programs to promote healthy living and injury prevention.
Our Community & Need
Seattle Children’s Hospital was founded in 1907 by a group of women concerned about children in the Seattle area receiving appropriate care by providers with pediatric expertise. Today Seattle Children’s Hospital, Foundation and Research Institute together deliver superior patient care, advance new discoveries and treatments through pediatric research, and raise funds to create better futures for patients. Consistently ranked as one of the top 10 children’s hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report, Seattle Children’s Hospital specializes in meeting the unique physical, emotional and developmental needs of children from infancy through young adulthood. Seattle Children’s primarily serves the Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho (WAMI) region, although some children, by virtue of their unique needs, travel from states outside the WAMI region.
Our Solution & Our Community Partners
Seattle Children’s has established partnerships throughout the community to help further initiatives focused on improving the health and well-being of children and youth. Armed with a new five-year strategic plan, Seattle Children’s seeks to further deepen its partnerships and community health focus.
The plan includes a Community Health initiative, with five areas of focus to help us reach our goal to bring our community partners together to focus on outcomes where we can make the greatest impact.
Specific efforts of the Community Health initiative include:
- Centralize Seattle Children’s approach to community health
- Focus on outcomes
- Transform the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, which is currently our only primary care clinic serving predominantly children of color and low-income families
- Invest in mental and behavioral healthcare
- Promote safe and active living, healthy eating and food security
As part of the strategic planning process, Seattle Children’s also adopted a new set of value statements with the following broad themes:
- Innovation in health and wellness leadership
- Collaboration and equity
- Promotion of healthy communities and a reduction in health disparities
Focusing our efforts in these areas promises to further Seattle Children’s work to promote and improve community and population health in Washington state and the entire WAMI region.
Participation in MHCU provides critical support by helping connect Seattle Children’s to partners in other states who have experienced similar journeys, or who have implemented programs, policies or action plans that are being evaluated by Seattle Children’s.
For More Information
For more information about the upstream work happening in our community, please contact Hugh Ewart at hugh.ewart@seattlechildrens.org.
