Kaiser Permanente is committed to high-quality health care and creating healthy communities. Everyone should have access to healthy food, economic opportunities, good schools, affordable housing, and safe neighborhoods. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. We’re proud to work with our partners in building a network of social health resources across the mid-Atlantic region that will effectively meet the critical needs of people in our communities – which is especially needed now. Together, through powerful collaboration, I know our communities can emerge stronger and healthier than before.

Becoming a part of the Unite Us network in 2019 marked an important change in our outreach and coordinated care model. The technology streamlines the way Optima Health connects members to local social services like healthy food, safe housing, and employment services. Once the member receives the referred services, the platform allows sharing updates, so providers can collaborate over a shared patient’s progress. We can track outcomes to measure the impact of the coordinated care network. We are now expanding our partnership to cover all of Virginia.

By becoming a part of Unite Virginia, the Virginia Mental Health Access Program (VMAP) is able to increase access to necessary mental health care services for Virginia providers and their pediatric patients. The Unite Us Platform is a huge step towards meeting VMAP’s mission of helping health care providers take better care of children and adolescents with mental health conditions. We are so excited to be a part of this important program and look forward to seeing the Unite Virginia network support not only providers using VMAP, but also the greater Virginia healthcare community at large.

By partnering with the Unite Us network, Ballad Health can truly integrate social care into our comprehensive system of healthcare. This allows for us to work in a more connected, complimentary way with our community partners, while elevating our ability to positively impact the communities we serve. It also allows us to utilize best practices in serving our vulnerable populations, and focus on being more culturally competent and equitable. These are very important commitments for Ballad Health and this is foundational to our journey of becoming a Community Health Improvement System.

Manna Ministry wouldn’t be possible without the Unite Us network. It is brilliantly designed to connect non-profit organizations and social services with those who need help. It is easy to use and the staff is responsive if we ever have a question.

Virginia’s hospital community is committed to the mission of addressing social determinants of health by ensuring that all Virginians have access to care and working to reduce health disparities. To that end, our members have worked closely with the Virginia Department of Health on planning for the buildout of this system in the Commonwealth and its key features, such as a two-way communication mechanism between health care providers and community partners. We look forward to full implementation of this program.

Here in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, we could not be happier. Health and social care providers really like how easy Unite Us is to learn and how it streamlines the referral process from beginning to end, facilitates patient/client consent, and saves time and effort while improving quality of care. We are working closely with the Unite Us community engagement managers to promote this solution as part of our No Wrong Door initiative, and the spirit of community and collaboration could not be better. Unite Us is a true game changer in how we take care of our neighbors in need.