Clinical Support for Public Health

• South Dakota’s three largest health systems [PDF 376KB] have put stewardship programs in place to prevent antibiotics from being overprescribed; all have at least one measure to track antibiotic prescribing and progress.
• To rally hospital engagement, Georgia developed a recognition program [PDF 420KB] to honor hospitals that meet state goals for reducing antibiotic overprescription.

• The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene produces City Health Information to bring timely, evidence-based clinical guidance to healthcare providers on primary care topics of importance to public health.
• On its Stories from the Field website, the National Association of County & City Health Officials invites local health departments to share stories illustrating public health successes, innovations, and challenges.

Partnerships between public health and health care can be powerful.

• The Salina-Saline County Health Department in Kansas is integrating public health and primary care to improve birth outcomes [PDF 349KB].
• Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, has taken an innovative approach to integrating public health and health care: using a shared space [PDF 333KB] to provide seamless care and save money.
• Montana’s health department partnered with a community hospital to provide a diabetes prevention program [PDF 343KB] onsite and via video conferencing, helping participants lose weight while also reducing the state’s health costs.

• Georgia SHAPE, a network of collaborative partnerships from business, government, education, philanthropy, and health care, is encouraging 30 minutes of additional physical activity in all Georgia elementary schools.
• Public health officials and healthcare providers can contribute success stories to a new multi-organizational effort highlighting successful examples of primary care and public health integration.

South Carolina Medicaid is helping providers and recipients of health care by improving service options to access long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), such as IUDs and implants. This is likely to reduce the number of repeat teen and unintended births.

• Providers are now able to receive Medicaid reimbursement for inserting an IUD or contraceptive implant in the hospital after a woman has given birth or prior to discharge.
• More information can be found in the South Carolina Medicaid Bulletin, “Long Acting Birth Control Device Provided in a Hospital Setting.”

• After enrolling in Maryland P³ (Patients, Pharmacists, Partnerships) Program, participants had better blood glucose and blood pressure control, were more likely to get recommended services, and had lower overall costs.
• Through the Asheville Project, employees with diabetes who teamed up with their community pharmacists experienced improved blood glucose control, lower total healthcare costs, and fewer sick days.
• In the first six months of the Operation Heart program, student pharmacists conducted 601 community events where they screened more than 63,000 individuals for cardiovascular disease risk factors.

• To support breastfeeding, Rhode Island is the first state to eliminate free infant formula distribution in all birthing hospitals.
• 53 Michigan hospitals have agreed to voluntarily share healthcare-associated infection (HAI) data with the state health department for improving statewide surveillance and prevention of HAIs.
• Ohio's Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, a coalition of healthcare, private, government, and public health professionals, have joined together to improve the state's model of healthcare delivery.