Evaluation of a Public Health Program Initiative

Currently, there is a growing need by consumers and the government for the healthcare system to adopt approaches that lead to improved access and reduced disparities. Access to health care is the ease with which an individual can acquire medical attention while health disparities are the wellness gaps that exist within a community (Walters, Stern, & Robertson-Malt, 2016). Fort Bend County community, Texas can utilize a collaborative measure to improve access to healthcare and reduce disparities.
Notably, the Fort Bend County health department can utilize a collaboration with the County Indigent Health Care Program (CIHCP) to improve access to health care and reduce health disparities in the community. CIHCP aims at providing health care services to eligible residents throughout the counties, public hospitals, and hospital districts (Fort Bend County, 2018). Having been in existence for decades, CIHCP understands the demographics of the county and their health care needs. Moreover, they have a healthcare database where all statistics are stored, and thus, they know which populations experience disparities and which areas of health care require improvement. For example, CIHCP has identified health insurance services as an area that needs extensive consideration. If CIHCP were to collaborate with the healthcare department, they can readily create awareness and increase the number of individuals with healthcare insurance cover in the county. Therefore, a collaboration between the two will lead to the provision of better health care services as well as reduced instances of healthcare disparities.
Often, collaborative measures in the healthcare sector serve to improve access to quality care. Collaboration entails the combination of resources to achieve a common goal. In this regard, a partnership between Fort Bend County health department and CIHCP can help to reduce cases of disparity as well as improve access to healthcare.
References
Fort Bend County, TX. (2018). Retrieved from https://datausa.io/profile/geo/fort-bend-county-tx/#health
Walters, S. J., Stern, C., & Robertson-Malt, S. (2016). The measurement of collaboration within healthcare settings: A systematic review of measurement properties of instruments. Jbi Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports, 14, 4, 138-97.