What is Better Health Greater Cleveland and Who are Our Partner's?

Better Health Greater Cleveland is an unparalleled alliance of regional stakeholders that is committed to improving the health and quality of care for Greater Cleveland’s residents with common chronic medical conditions. The alliance synchronizes three vital initiatives: 1) measuring and publicly reporting physician group practice achievement using nationally endorsed indicators of high quality care; 2) consumer education that builds community understanding of health-care quality and spurs patient activation in their care; and 3) coordinated region-wide provider education in quality improvement. This Community Health Checkup represents our first public report to Northeast Ohio.

Better Health Greater Cleveland leverages regional cooperation and the electronic medical records capabilities of the region’s health systems to report on outpatient care across all payer sources and socioeconomic groups for several important conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease and heart failure. This first Community Health Checkup highlights care and outcomes for adult patients with diabetes. Future reports also will include selected aspects of our region’s hospitals’ care and outcomes.

The Better Health alliance is one of 14 selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to participate in its national initiative, Aligning Forces for Quality – The Regional Market Project. Its objective is to improve the health of people with chronic conditions by aligning multiple stakeholders and resources that influence health care quality in regions throughout the United States.

Better Health Greater Cleveland Participants range from public health agencies to the regional business community. Founding partners of Better Health include The MetroHealth System, which serves as Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grantee, The Center for Community Solutions, and Health Action Council. Committed partners are listed below, categorized as Primary Care Practices, Public Health Organizations and Consumers, and Employers and Health Plans.

Committed Partners

As of June 2008

• Primary care practices (54 sites, 520 physicians)
  • Cleveland Clinic, Main Campus and Regional Medical Practices
  • University Hospitals Family Practice
  • Case Western Reserve University Practice-Based Research Network
  • Kaiser Permanente-Ohio
  • Louis Stokes VA Medical Center
  • MetroHealth System, Main Campus and Center for Community Health
  • Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Services, Inc. (NEON)
  • Care Alliance
  • Neighborhood Family Practice
  • Huron Hospital
• Public Health Organizations and Consumers
  • Cleveland Department of Health
  • Cuyahoga County Department of Health
  • Ohio Department of Health
  • NetWellness.org
  • Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
  • OneCommunity
• Employers and Health Plans
  • Health Action Council (HAC)
  • HAC Health Plan Advisory Committee
  • Health Plans
    • Kaiser Permanente of Ohio
    • Medical Mutual of Ohio
    • United HealthCare of Ohio
    • Anthem
    • Cigna
    • Aetna
  • Ohio Medicaid