Riverside Community Health Foundation

Health Executive Exchange of Riverside Community Health Foundation

Dr. Sally Andriamiarisoa, Vice-President of Advancement

Background, Purpose and Partners:

Health Executive Exchange (HEXEX) is the 2008 Riverside Community Health Foundation Initiative for the development of interdisciplinary partnerships amongst key health stakeholders of Riverside City and County. Through separate yet interconnected health-driven work-plans of HEXEX's various sub-committees, cohesive and collaborative visioning, planning, and implementation of synergistic strategies will increase the health status of diverse underserved populations currently manifesting poor health outcomes in Riverside City and County.

Premised on the broader determinants of health, HEXEX is expected, over the next 5-10 years, to be a significant change catalyst for place transformation, affecting social environment and eliciting collaborative capacity building and leveraging towards individual and collective behavioral shifts for positive health outcomes. HEXEX also represents a transportable policy changing model for systems-change with the potential of impacting multiple communities locally as well as statewide. Driven by a long-term view, HEXEX participants are focusing on systemic change impacting current and future generations' health status.

HEXEX's 75 current participants are top executives from hospitals and clinics, health services agencies, the county health departments including the public health officer, universities, the county education department, grass-root organizations, businesses, chamber of commerce, civic leadership, service organizations, elected officials, county Supervisors, city officials, city council members, the mayor's office, Inland Empire Health Plan, First Five, United Way, Community Foundation of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, health-related non-profits, and media representatives. Since the launching of HEXEX in January 2008, these key decision-makers have increasingly become hopeful, enthusiastic, and committed to the notion that together, they can maximize the effectiveness of their resources, and develop effective partnerships towards an improved health status for Riverside's current and future residents.

Current Status of Outcome Identification from Various HEXEX Sub-Committees for the Next 2 Years:

Governance Structure: HEXEX participants are distributed into 6 sub-committees listed below, according to their resources and/or a specific health issue. Monthly co-chair meetings will ensure effective dissemination of information, maximization of resources, cross-communication amongst sub-committees to ensure cohesive collective planning, visioning and implementation, and avoidance of needless duplication. Generating a sustained culture of behavioral change towards health, through the creation of a peer group of leaders holding each other accountable, encouraged and trusting, within their distinct but now connected entities, is the ultimate goal of HEXEX.

Medical Entities: Pilot a health prevention/exercise initiative with buy-in from upper level hospital leadership, endorsement from physicians prescribing exercises to trigger behavioral change, and conduct an awareness campaign in conjunction with schools, churches, insurance providers, employers, and build a unified health mandate validated by credible voices with a healthy message from multiple supporters to initiate changed habits. Also, they are currently exploring providing community opportunities for free testing and screening.

Academic Institutions: Create a joint community health education curriculum involving students and faculty from 4 universities/colleges to facilitate, in conjunction with service agencies and non-profits, raised public awareness regarding healthy choices with regards to nutrition, exercise and environmental choices. Also, HEXEX representatives will join the Advisory Council of the UCR School of Medicine to provide feed-back and community input for the Residency Program and its retention rates for the region.

Insurance/Access/Affordability for K-12: Pilot an insurance awareness campaign within low-income, underserved school districts to increase student enrollment in currently available insurance coverage opportunities. Pilots will be neighborhood school based and also provide linkage to community based services as well as free testing, screening from medical entities.

Business Leaders/Wellness Programs/Insurance Costs: Develop, in conjunction with the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce and its membership of 1,600, a health needs assessment, and consult with Inland Empire Health Plan and the Riverside County's Wellness Department, to provide more health insurance coverage. Also, work with insurance brokers to leverage health education programs and incentives to lower insurance costs.

Agency Partnership for Resource Mapping and Needs Assessments: Create a model to avoid duplication, and strategically leverage the resources of agencies in the region. Focus on capacity building of civic leaders towards health prevention improvement of health status for the region, as well as changing the social environment to impact the health outcomes in our communities.

Advocacy and Public Awareness: As the above sub-committees develop their advocacy needs, the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce will provide their already effective advocacy mechanisms for the top health needs of HEXEX, and create a unified voice for the region. Support will also be lent to the conditional approval of UCR's School of Medicine to further its progress.