Community Health and Stakeholders

Community Health Centers Conditions Necessary for Policy Innovation An important but often ignored part of community involvement in academic health centers is the formation of a collaborative and responsive relationship with stakeholders. Such relationships enhance the role of academic health centers as providers of healthcare and as leaders in community health (Butger, 2010). Research from Harvard's Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI) gives evidence of the way the design of health plans can discourage some people from taking up the care they need.

An interesting PHD project by Karolina under the banner of 'Pathways to a Healthy Life' aims to push boundaries between disciplines aside so that the contribution of the university in the provision of health care across all facets including life expectancy, wellbeing and ageing are improved. It evaluates the various ways in which local communities, individuals, lifestyle as well as environmental and economic conditions affect aging healthily.

In particular, the study aimed at getting a clearer comprehension of the poor lifestyles and experiences of the groups that have been termed as the 'vulnerable' including the unemployed and homeless youth and look at what kind of relationships they had with local communities they resided in as well as the social and economic structures around them. It also looked at how these factors influenced the kind of decisions they made including what kinds of food they consumed (News, 2016).

Evolution of Health Centers To foster better partnerships and relationships between community centers and academic centers, the two can start by sharing collaborative models and the best practices they have found effective with each other. The evolution of the relationships between the centers should be monitored always so that the partnerships adapts and addresses the changing needs of the community (Brutger, 2010). As per an analysis by the HRSA, nearly 4% of health centers face managerial, organizational and financial problems that are so serious they can sink the organization.

Just half of these centers have good internal operational and management systems and structures. Because of the lack of good structures, the changes in the external environment of the market they face, for example, a possible rise in the number of patients who are insured in hard economic times, may impact the viability of these centers negatively.

For stability to be achieved, even as health centers evolve, there is need for astute leadership that goes beyond just the need to balance books of accounts and take care of the bottom line. There is need for factors like access to adequate capital, information technology, operations and productivity to be given the attention they deserve at all times, especially during an evolution phase (Taylor, 2004). Who are the Stakeholders? There are several stakeholders who may be legitimately interested in the success and operation of these organizations.

Besides the core group of insiders, people like employees, insurance funds, trade unions, the community and the concerned government bodies should be involved as stakeholders. Stakeholders can be a broad term and can include anyone who can legitimately show that they have an interest in an organization. In the healthcare sector, it is not very easy differentiating those who can be classified as stakeholders from those who aren't because.