OUR WORK

An overview and highlights from our current work

“People who are closest to the problem are closest to the solution.”

What We Do

HealthierHere brings people and organizations together from across sectors to improve how our health system works – addressing underlying barriers to health and wellness, and increasing access to high quality, culturally relevant behavioral and physical care. To improve health and advance equity in King County, WA, we:

Build & Strengthen
Partnerships

Develop
Networks

Share
Resources

Drive & Test
Innovations

Our Roles

HealthierHere is a collaborative nonprofit that:

  • Leads with equity. We are committed to doing the work to become an antiracist organization.  
  • Provides backbone support and leadership for the Connect2 Community Network. This cross-sector collaborative is building a community-governed, unified community information exchange to support care coordination in our region.
  • Partners with community groups and leaders to develop and implement authentic community engagement strategies. We aim to engage with community in ways that are meaningful, culturally attuned and linguistically responsive.
  • Serves as the Accountable Community of Health (ACH) for King County. There are nine regional ACHs in Washington State working with cross-sector partners to improve health and wellness as part of the Washington State Medicaid Transformation.

Together with our partners, we are building a system of care that works better for everyone.

Our Strategies in Action

HealthierHere brings health and social service organizations together to identify opportunities, co‐design solutions, and implement ways of delivering care that better meet our communities’ needs. 

We provide leadership and support to advance innovation, learning, quality improvement and high quality care that produces better outcomes. 

Innovations

HealthierHere catalyzes and facilitates partner-driven initiatives to test innovative care models that improve health outcomes and achieve results. Initiatives are selected to address gaps in the current system and designed to be replicated or scaled.  

Reducing ED Utilization through Mobile Health Resources

This opportunity emerged from HealthierHere’s Emergency Department (ED) Use Workgroup. Projects aim to reduce the volume of hospital emergency department visits that result from “low-acuity” 911 calls by implementing innovations around the provision of or linkage to community support by mobile health resources, including, but not exclusive to, firefighters, paramedics (including community paramedics), emergency medical technicians, and caseworkers.

Current project: 

  • Seattle Fire Department’s Enhancing the Capacity of a Fire-Based Mobile Integrated Health System in Central Seattle

Learn more:

  • Video recording (via TVW) of Jon Ehrenfeld, Mobile Integrated Health Program Manager at Seattle Fire Department, providing an update on the program to the WA Senate Behavioral Health Subcommittee to Health & Long Term Care

Medication Assisted Treatment Care Transformation

This opportunity was developed in response to a care gap identified by HealthierHere’s Opioids Learning Collaborative. Projects aim to reduce the care gap for individuals with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) who have received a Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) induction in an Emergency Department (ED) or jail, by enhancing warm hand-offs and reducing barriers for individuals to continue their MAT with community-based, low-barrier MAT providers. 

Current projects: 

  • Country Doctor Community Health Centers’ Innovative Approach to Transforming Medication Assisted Treatment in Central Seattle
  • Public Health – Seattle & King County’s Buprenorphine at Navos Mental Health and Wellness Center Project (Bupe NoW) Expansion in South King County

Learn more:

Whole-Person Care

HealthierHere and select partners plan to test 7 innovative new projects to better address mental health needs in coordination with physical health care for individuals with SMI and co-ocurring physical health conditions – otherwise known as integrated or whole-person care. Each innovation is designed to be scalable once tested.

Current project partnerships: 

  • CHI Franciscan and Valley Cities Behavioral Health Care
  • Downtown Emergency Services Center (DESC) and Harborview Medical Center
  • DESC, Community Health Plan of WA, Public Health – Seattle & King County, King County Behavioral Health and Recovery Division
  • HealthPoint Community Health Center and Valley Cities Behavioral Health Care
  • MultiCare Health System and Sea Mar Community Health Centers
  • International Community Health Services and Asian Counseling and Referral Service
  • Seattle Children’s Care Network and Seattle Children’s Hospital Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine

Learn more: 

Learning Opportunities

We support our clinical, tribal and community partners with focused training, technical assistance and practice coaching opportunities. We also bring health and social service providers together to share and learn from one another. We facilitate topic-specific learning collaboratives (e.g., addressing the opioid crisis), problem-solving and solution co-design sessions (e.g., examining care coordination), and opportunities for organizations to build and strengthen partnerships. 

Additionally, we offer free lunchtime learning opportunities that feature local experts sharing practical knowledge and lessons learned about a variety of topics related to health care and social services delivery. Anyone interested is welcome to join, and partners are encouraged to suggest topics and speakers.

Want to know about upcoming learning opportunities?

screenshot of presentation slide with webinar presenter images

Click to access our Webinar Playlist on YouTube. Examples include:

Supporting the Medical Care of People Living with Serious Mental Illness: An Online Course for Case Managers
March 24, 2021 – Reducing the Care Gap: How HealthierHere’s MOUD Innovation Projects are Expanding Low-Barrier MOUD Access in King County
Jan 20, 2021 – A Discussion on Sovereignty, Equity, and the Health of Indigenous Peoples
August 13, 2020 – 30-minute Telebehavioral Health Appointments: Strategies & Best Practices
July 15, 2020 Webinar – Respecting Limits: Advance Care Planning Conversations During COVID-19
March 4, 2020 – MeHAF Assessment: A Tool for Organizational Change
November 12, 2019 – Introduction to Value-Based Payment in Washington State
November 8, 2019 – Partner Learning Webinar: Community Health Worker Asthma Model
September 26, 2019 – Partner Learning Webinar: Substance Use Disorder Consent Management
August 16, 2019 – Partner Learning Webinar: ‘MVP’ Method to Improve Care for Multi-visit Patients
July 19, 2019 – Partner Learning Webinar: Overdose Letter Notifications
April 25, 2019 – Partner Learning Webinar: Harm Reduction
February 20, 2019 – Partner Learning Webinar: Transportation
December 5, 2018 – Partner Learning Webinar: Empanelment & Registries
November 15, 2018 – Information Session for Community-based Organizations
October 25, 2018 – Partner Learning Webinar: PreManage
July 19, 2018 – Partner Summit Webinar
June 21, 2018 – Partner Summit Webinar
May 17, 2018 – Partner Summit Webinar
April 19, 2018 – Partner Summit Webinar
March 14, 2018 – Partner Summit
February 15, 2018 – Partner Summit
January 9, 2018 – Partner Summit

Quality Improvement

Effective quality improvement (QI) as a key building block for population health and quality care. Within King County, QI infrastructure varies significantly within and across providers of health care, behavioral health, community-based and social services. Our goal is to build a more robust QI infrastructure in King County and establish a strong foundation for population health activities in service to improved health outcomes.

Pay for Progress
To encourage the building and strengthening of foundational infrastructure in our health care system, HealthierHere developed an approach called “Pay for Progress.” As part of their contract, HealthierHere Practice Partners can earn incentives by completing semiannual reporting requirements related to process metrics and improvement over self. The data helps us monitor progress, understand pain points and identify training and technical assistance needs.

Click to open our Quality Improvement Strategy:

Value-Based Payment (VBP)

Intro to VBP in Washington State Webinar – watch the recording of our 2019 “VBP 101” webinar

VBP Academy – Our first cohort of 17 behavioral health partners completed the academy curriculum and stretch project requirement in 2019.

Behavioral Health Agencies (BHAs) currently providing outpatient mental health and/or substance use disorder services in King County were invited to participate in this ten-month long learning academy. Participants gain a better understanding of value-based payment (VBP) models in behavioral health, quality improvement, data collection, and alignment of clinical delivery and payment systems. The Academy involves a combination of in-person meetings and webinars taught by experts in value-based payment from the National Council for Behavioral Health. This opportunity was offered through our partnership with Comagine Health, the Washington Council for Behavioral Health, and the National Council for Behavioral Health to offer a Value-Based Payment Practice Transformation Academy (The Academy).