The Greater Flint Health Coalition (GFHC) is pleased to announce a new $75,000 grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to support a Health Care Impact Study, which began in September 2009. In an effort to improve the health status of Genesee County & City of Flint residents and to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of the healthcare delivery system, the GFHC is convening the Health Care Impact Subcommittee of the City of Flint Mayor’s Local Auto Task Force. The Health Care Impact Study was undertaken to evaluate and address the impact of the automotive crisis on the community’s healthcare delivery system and resident’s associated health status.
The study, being conducted by the GFHC and its consulting firm, The Lewin Group, will establish and compare a pre-economic crisis baseline and the current picture of the healthcare system in Genesee County, as well as project future impacts, while developing a process to monitor and intervene.
The end product of this study will be a community needs assessment relative to the health care delivery system. A resultant series of recommended strategies for how local healthcare system entities can collaboratively implement solutions and/or interventions to triage the impacts on health status and the healthcare system’s ability to supply services that meet the demand of the residents of the community will be developed. Upon analysis of these recommendations by the community’s health care and business leaders, an official request for federal aid to support the developed strategies will be submitted to Dr. Ed Montgomery, President Obama’s Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers.
In addition to the $75,000 grant from the C.S. Mott Foundation, the GFHC’s major core funders – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Genesys Health System, HealthPlus of Michigan, Hurley Medical Center, McLaren Regional Medical Center, and the United Auto Workers – provided matching funding that collectively made this community study possible.
The GFHC plans to complete the study by Spring 2010.