The partnership establishes the Partnering for a Healthy Virginia Initiative, which will focus on coordinating population health efforts between the association and its member organizations as well as the state health department, local health departments, local jurisdictions and other stakeholders.
The initiative will also employ numerous strategies to improve population health efforts, such as forming a multistakeholder, statewide population health committee; strengthening the state’s community health improvement coalitions; as well as developing strategies to combat cultural, economic, geographic and racial health disparities.
“VHHA has long partnered with VDH on many successful initiatives to improve the health and well-being of the Commonwealth, such as reducing infant mortality, providing education and resources to Virginia’s small and rural hospitals, reducing health care-associated infections, the Neonatal Perinatal Collaborative and the Hospital Preparedness Program, among others,” said Mark H. Merrill, incoming VHHA board of directors’ chair and president and CEO of Winchester, Va.-based Valley Health System. “The Partnering for a Healthy Virginia Initiative is a natural extension of these efforts.”
Editor’s note: This article was updated April 27 to clarify Valley Health System is based in WInchester, Va., not Luray, Va.
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