Learning Histories

"This is your lucky day!" - Part 1 of 11 Putting Faces to the Statistics - Part 2 of 11 Broadening the Circle - Part 3 of 11 Physician Involvement - Part 4 of 11 Bringing the Neighborhood to the Table - Part 5 of 11 The Morning After - Part 6 of 11 CHP Begins - Part 7 of 11 Case Management - Part 8 of 11 Expanding the Program - Part 9 of 11 Case Management Still an Issue - Part 10 of 11 It all Comes Together - Part 11 of 11 Click here to download all parts in one file (Rich-Text format - 61K) Cast of Characters Program Goals Eligibility Guidelines Motivations for Initiating CHP Essential Elements Critical Success Factors E-Mail Questions and Comments

Community Health Partnership - Introduction

In 1993, a collaborative project began that provided two years of free health coverage up to $10,000 for people who encounter barriers to acquiring health insurance.

Originally called the Phoenix Project, the Community Health Partnership established a set of aggressive goals for itself. The program rose from shaky beginnings to eventually provide health coverage for more than 750 eligible people in our community. What's more, the program offers a unique case management component that has helped members transition to more permanent coverage after the two-year period.

The program currently is a collaborative effort among Memorial Hospital of South Bend, PARTNERS Health Plan, Turning Point, Southeast Quality of Life [SEQL] neighborhood association and the Near Northwest Neighborhood Inc., neighborhood association.

In the following Learning History, author Jim Sauer traces the steps of CHP's development through the eyes of those who made it succeed, and through those it has helped along the way. Detailed within are the challenges and conflicts that threatened the program's future, but ultimately helped shape its success.

We learned some valuable lessons about ourselves, about partnerships and about our relationship with members of our own community, and we wish to share them with you. The lessons we learned through our experience with CHP will most certainly help us as we develop other innovative, collaborative approaches to improving our community's health.

For questions or comments, or to request more information about CHP,  please see the CHP website at PARTNERS. Or go to the CHP Cast of Characters page for individual e-mail addresses (which will be updated as more become available).