Working together in rural Vermont: NVRH leverages partnerships to close care gaps

Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury is in the most rural region of an already-rural state. And just like neighbors help each other shovel driveways during Vermont’s legendary winters, NVRH looks to its community to help ensure that the people in their area have the best chance at overall health.

“Because we’re rural, we have to think differently about how we deliver services and how we partner to fill the gaps,” Shawn Tester, CEO of NVRH, told the AHA. NVRH often collaborates with NEK Prosper!, a network of community organizations that support community health in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Previous efforts include the VeggieVanGo program, a partnership with the Vermont Food Bank that offers fresh produce on a drive-in basis; working with local financial institutions to create a loan program for new and small business owners who may lack access to traditional banking; and coordinating with mental health organizations to create an outpatient emergency mental health support system so those who may be experiencing a mental health crisis can avoid the ED and instead be connected with a mental health care provider. 

The collaboration deepened last year as NVRH and NEK Prosper! worked together to perform a collective community health assessment. Having a common strategic plan, Tester said, enables NVRH and its community partners to develop more efficient and effective programs to meet the community’s needs. “We called it ‘blending and braiding:’ How do we take the limited resources we have available to address the social drivers of health, and how do we weave them together?” Pooling resources means that NVRH and its partners can share data, avoid duplication and align goals. Like many rural areas across the country, the region’s top four health priorities are addressing mental health and substance use disorders; access to care and affordability; chronic disease prevention and management; and the social determinants of health. NVRH faces these challenges knowing they have a team that extends far beyond the hospital walls.

“In a rural area like ours, none of us has the resources to do this work alone,” Tester said. “The only way we move the needle is by working together.”