Synapse is a coalition of non-profit and federally qualified healthcare providers who collaborate to collect data that informs investment into the needs of our community by completing a community health needs assessment. This collaboration is a contracted partnership where each healthcare system pays MCDPH to pull financial resources to support the staffing and data collection efforts for the CHNA and its supplement analysis. The contract cycles are three years long and include the planning, implementation, and analysis of the CHNA and all of its associated reports for they systems to meet IRS and HRSA requirements. The success of the CHNA and the Synapse Coalition efforts has allowed the coalition to grow through new membership and the ability to leverage additional grant funds to increase staff and outreach. The vision of Synapse is to participate in a collaborative approach that identifies community needs, assets, resources, and strategies toward assuring better health and health equity for all Maricopa County residents.
This collaborative/coalition was created to:
Eliminate duplicative efforts; create a compelling and sustainable CHNA process; build stronger relationships between healthcare systems and public health; identify opportunities for joint efforts to improve the health and well-being of Maricopa County; help healthcare systems, public health, and community partners focus available resources to address the communities' most critical health needs.
Steps to Implement Program
In 2014 and 2015, MCDPH worked with a group of hospitals and FQHCs to develop the structure. After some surveying and discussion, the members identified the following reasons for joining the coalition:
Training opportunities - 0%
Technical assistance opportunities - 0%
Access to high quality data - 100%
Access to public health experts - 0%
Networking with other health professions colleagues - 20%
Participating in a community health improvement planning process - 80%
Collaborating with diverse colleagues for health improvement - 20%
Other - 20%
As a result, the Synapse Coalition decided to meet monthly, collect CHNA data, and work individually with MCDPH to develop each organization's CHNA report. Starting July 2023 will be the 4th full-cycle for the Synapse coalition contracts, now with eight healthcare partners (four hospitals and four FQHCs).
LHD Role
As of 2023, MCDPH had four full-time staff working on Synapse: Program Manager, Health Impact Specialists, and Community Health Epidemiologist.
Each partner's contracted amount is based on the number of facilities they have, which require separate reports. FQHCs have flat fees due to their role as community healthcare safety nets.
Contract fees pay for the program managers and are part of the epidemiology salary. The remaining money is used for data collection and analysis. Additional Synapse-related staff is typically funded through other relevant grants.
Contracts between MCDPH and Synapse Coalition members outline the following deliverables.
County agrees to: Produce a final CHNA report for the healthcare facility/partner by the deadline determined by the healthcare facility/partner and MCDPH; Administer the data gathering, cleaning, and analysis for community health indicators in Maricopa County, including data collection from focus groups; Administer and convene meetings of the CHNA partners at least quarterly; Provide for ad-hoc data analysis on community health indicators at the request of the healthcare facility/partner.
Healthcare partner agrees to: Allow employees of the healthcare facility/partner to participate as necessary on the Synapse coalition and/or workgroups; Facilitate the timely review and approval of the final CHNA report by the necessary Administrators and Boards with the Hospital/Healthcare system.