Measuring the Statewide Impact of Health Reform through Local Stories
By Jess Meyer, Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved
It is an important and historic moment in health care, with major changes taking place at the national, state and local level. These reforms are starting new conversations, bringing new tools and creating unique opportunities for communities to make progress on complex health care system challenges. How much and what kinds of impact these changes will have remains to be seen, though, and hard data is many months or years away.
In the time between, before concrete data and long-term shifts can be observed and analyzed, there are many ways to measure impact and begin to understand the experience of health reform. Sharing stories is a powerful, effective form of communication we have, and a vital part of both recording history and evaluating progress. That’s why we’re launching a new project, Health is Local, which aims to tell the story of health reform through the eyes and words of the Coloradans living it.
Over the next year, we will follow four communities as local and national reforms roll out: the city of Colorado Springs, and the counties of Montrose, Summit and Yuma. These communities were chosen to represent the diversity of urban, western slope, mountain resort and eastern plains areas of the state. We’ve visited each community over the past few months, interviewing health care leaders, learning about the local health care system, talking to residents about their hopes and fears regarding health reform, and gathering data and information to understand each community’s current situation. We’ll check back in with those communities multiple times over the next year to see how and if things are changing. We’ll follow their progress, highlight what is going well and what is not, and look for statewide themes and trends.
At the Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved, we believe that the local experience of health reform is an essential perspective in the statewide narrative of change. These local stories help identify what is working and where we need to focus new energy or make course corrections. They clearly illustrate just how diverse our communities’ experiences are, reminding us that a one-size-fits-all approach to health reform will almost certainly fail.
During his first interview for Health is Local, John Gardner, CEO of Yuma District Hospital in Yuma County, shared his thoughts: “I think the changes that we have in front of us are exciting. I talk to people who are in the same phase of their career as I am, and they say this is a great time to retire. And I’m saying this is an incredibly exciting time… Scary, but fun.”
We agree – it is an incredibly exciting time. We feel privileged to be welcomed into communities as they make this journey and to be able to help share their story with state and national leaders. We hope you’ll bookmark HealthisLocal.org and plan to visit regularly in 2014 to follow these stories as they develop and learn about the statewide impact of health reform.
