FLORIDA HOSPITAL
Florida Hospital is one of the largest private, not-for-profit health systems in the country. Established in 1908, Florida Hospital is a 2,188-bed tertiary care center with seven campuses throughout the Orlando metropolitan area. The oldest and largest healthcare provider in the Central Florida region and the busiest hospital in the nation for inpatient admissions, Florida Hospital serves 1.7 million residents and tourists in Orange, Seminole, and Osceola counties and cares for over one million patients annually-including more Medicare inpatients than any other U.S. hospital.
COMMUNITY HEALTH IMPACT COUNCIL
The Community Health Impact Council serves as a subcommittee of the Florida Hospital Board to provide additional oversight and to make recommendations regarding Florida Hospital's community benefit investments. The Community Health Impact Council reviews and approves strategic community benefit initiatives funded through the Community Health Impact Connection (CHiC). These strategic initiatives are innovative pilots designed to improve the health of the Central Florida community and also reduce preventable medical costs and interventions.
ABOUT COMMUNITY BENEFIT
The Association for Community Health Improvement defines Community Benefit as follows:
In acting to fulfill their missions and their public trust, hospitals and other health service organizations strive to benefit the communities they serve. These "community benefit" activities relate to accessibility, quality and cost of the community's health system, as well as to community health and well being. Community benefit activities pay specific attention to community collaboration, community capacity building, and people in the community with unmet health needs.
Hospitals and other health service organizations are working to organize and manage accountable community benefit programs (with appropriate resources and authority) that include measurable goals and involve the coordination of all health system components - including the medical staff. Community benefit programs build on and work to expand and align an organization's ongoing health improvement and community service initiatives into the organization's strategic plan and budget.
Collaboration with health service and other community organizations is an important characteristic of community benefit efforts. These initiatives can target physical, mental, emotional or spiritual health, as well as community well being. Their activities may involve funding and/or in-kind contributions including personnel, time, space, or other resources.
Some examples of the many types of community benefit programming include:
- Improving access to primary care, especially for the medically indigent;
- Managing some aspects of the uncompensated care problem to improve access to humane charity care;
- Facilitating enrollment in health care coverage for vulnerable populations;
- Providing direct assistance to community services;
- Supporting, providing and advocating for health education, health promotion and disease prevention; and
- Collaborating with other community organizations in quality of life or healthy communities initiatives that create the conditions in which people can be healthy.