In 2002, Kaiser Permanente (KP) and CAPH/SNI developed a formal partnership to expand access to quality care and improve the health of our communities. The vision for this partnership is for public hospital systems and Kaiser Permanente leaders and staff, at the state and local levels, to work together for the purposes of:

• Sharing strategies and resources to improve access to quality care and enhance efficiency in and across our systems, and
• Working collaboratively with our community partners to improve the health of our communities.

Through this partnership, Kaiser Permanente and California’s public hospitals and health systems work to improve community health and to reduce the health disparities based on race, ethnicity and economic status in California.

To that end, CAPH/SNI and KP have collaborated on the following activities:

Chronic Care: KP has provided California public hospitals with expertise, resources and training on chronic disease management. KP has also provided five public hospital system grants in this area.

Local partnerships: CAPH members work with KP administrators in their region on locally-driven priorities. For example, KP shared materials on staff productivity standards, patient education, nursing policies and procedures, community assessment, and physician coding with Riverside County Regional Medical Center. The RCRMC staff also toured KP facilities to better understand KP models, like Environmental Services and QA.

Cultural Competence & Language Access: SNI and KP are working together to share bilingual staff training and assessment tools. Also, KP is providing public hospitals with resources to purchase language access technology.

Access to Specialty Care: SNI, in partnership with Kaiser and the California Primary Care Association, is holding a series of convenings on this issue.

Information Technology: With support from KP, SNI will award four $30,000 grants for public hospital system IT projects in 2006.