Writer: Liz Palmer
2 min read September 2021 — Public health efforts in San Antonio are bridging gaps in access to education and care through strategic partnerships among healthcare providers and local government. Community support and innovation are essential when it comes to high-impact public health initiatives, something healthcare leaders in San Antonio realize and regularly implement.
Most recently, San Antonio’s leaders in public health and government are celebrating National Public Health Week (NPHW) this week. The American Public Health Association annually acknowledges the innovative programming public officials put on nationwide to provide for their communities. The theme this year is “Public Health is Where You Are,” celebrating meeting people where they’re at to educate and treat them. “Public health is all around us. It’s the air you breathe. It’s the foods you eat. It’s the parks you play in. It’s the roads you travel. It’s our community,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in a news release for the event.
With the kickoff of NPHW, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District launched the SA Forward Plan, a partnership with mySidewalk to drive public health efforts in the region in the short term for lasting community effects. It covers six fundamentals of health reflective of residents’ needs, including issues such as equity, food insecurity and healthcare access. Each category will be addressed through data-driven solutions, each of which are detailed on the program’s dashboard. “The SA Forward health plan outlines the work we will do together to make San Antonio a more resilient and healthier place for all to enjoy,” said Nirenberg.
On top of NPHW and Metro Health’s strategic plan, University Health System and Bexar County have come together to form a partnership through the upcoming Public Health Division. The program will combine the expertise and reach of University Health and the county to best target residents’ healthcare needs. University Health’s press release last March promised the division will prioritize action steps supporting “health equity, acute care, preventive health care and public health emergency response.” The initiative’s backbone will come from strategic partnerships with healthcare and government institutions with regional influence, such as the teams at the City of San Antonio, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District and the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council.
George Hernandez, president and CEO of University Health System, told Invest: about the organization’s focus on making care accessible. “We take to heart our responsibility to provide outstanding and compassionate care to everyone – those with no health coverage as well as those with commercial health insurance,” he said. Access to healthcare is often barriered by limiting insurance plans or no health insurance at all. “The biggest challenge is patients having access to quality care,” Rodney Gray, CEO of Wave Healthcare, told Invest:. “For those who have access, managing the complexities of plan benefits is yet another hurdle.”
Across the board, access to quality care is paramount to leaders in San Antonio. “People get along here,” Hernandez said. “It’s not that everyone agrees on everything but we find common ground. The collaborative effort is ingrained in the community.”
