The Aetna Foundation is teaming up with Camden (N.J.) Coalition of Healthcare Providers to help spread its approach to treating complex patients to other cities through a collaboration called Neighborhood Health Compass.
The Camden Coalition, founded by Jeffrey Brenner, MD, is known for its "hot-spotting" technique of identifying the biggest users of healthcare and helping those patients find more coordinated, better care to lower costs. Dr. Brenner's work was featured in "The Hot Spotters," a detailed report by Atul Gawande, MD, published in The New Yorker.
The Aetna Foundation will work directly with Camden Coalition's National Center for Complex Health and Social Needs, which was recently launched to help communities across the country improve care for patients with the most complex needs. Together, the groups plan to expand the hot-spotting model, which uses integrated, cross-sector data to improve outcomes, to other cities. The work will be powered by a $1.65 million grant awarded by the Aetna Foundation, according to a Philly.com report.
"Our vision is to make Camden the first city in the country to 'bend the cost curve' while improving quality," Dr. Brenner said in a statement announcing the partnership. "Using this grant, we can not only expand our ability to share our learnings among healthcare providers, but also support the development of similar models that will truly improve the health of communities and neighborhoods across the country."
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