Why Community Partnerships in Healthcare Matter Now

Key Takeaways:

• Local health departments (LHDs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) offer trusted access, policy influence and infrastructure that can support health systems in achieving quality goals at low cost and high value. Engaging them isn't charity—it's a competitive advantage.
• From identifying emerging threats to reaching hard-to-serve populations, LHDs provide real-time insights and relationships that help systems improve outcomes and lower costs.
• To thrive in new payment models, health systems must revisit how they integrate with the community. Systems that lead this shift will be the ones that grow, save and sustain.

When COVID-19 hit, health systems managed the clinical frontlines, but it was local public health departments (LHDs) that became the community’s connective tissue—leading testing, contact tracing, guidance and trust-building. Far from an exception, that moment signaled that healthcare’s future will be defined as much by what happens in neighborhoods as in hospitals.

With the rise of value-based care and an increasing focus on closing gaps in care delivery, health systems can no longer afford to treat community engagement as a philanthropic afterthought. It must be viewed as a strategic imperative.

This article highlights eight compelling reasons why health system leaders should begin engaging with mission-critical community healthcare.

1. Public Health as Strategic Radar

LHDs are often the first to spot emerging threats, including infectious disease outbreaks, chronic illness clusters, climate-related risks, through their direct engagement with high-risk populations and community data. Health systems, by contrast, typically detect these risks only when patients arrive in crisis. To shift from reactive to proactive, health systems must integrate LHDs into their core strategies: sharing data, coordinating messaging and designing joint response plans.

Leadership recommendation: Ensure your quality or risk committees are regularly reviewing public health data to inform workforce planning and care model redesign.

2. Strength in Policy Influence

LHDs operate within state and local governments, giving them daily influence over policies that shape health system operations. By aligning with these agencies, health systems can amplify their advocacy impact and co-shape public policies that drive sustainable care models. Take North Carolina, where LHDs and health systems jointly advocated for Medicaid Section 1115 waivers that prioritized social determinants of health, a win unlikely without their partnership.

Leadership recommendation: Invite LHD leaders to participate in quarterly policy briefings and co-develop advocacy strategies.

3. Reaching the Hardest-to-Reach

Traditional care models often miss the people who need them most: immigrants, rural residents, the unhoused and the uninsured. These groups are essential to value-based performance, but face barriers rooted in distrust, access and infrastructure. LHDs and CBOs already serve these populations with credibility. Through community health workers, mobile units and culturally competent outreach, they turn disengaged individuals into active patients. In California, for instance, partnerships with LHDs led to reduced ER use and improved care among unhoused populations, two core goals for improved health and success in value-based care.

Leadership recommendation: Commission a community access gap analysis. Identify where LHDs or CBOs can help expand reach and strengthen risk-based contract performance.

4. Expanding Access, Enhancing Reputation

As value-based reimbursement models evolve, outcomes and access metrics are becoming core performance indicators. Systems that overlook marginalized populations risk not just financial underperformance, but reputational damage. LHDs bring cultural fluency and local relationships that health systems can’t replicate alone. In places like New York, collaborative models are already in motion, with health systems and LHDs co-leading health equity efforts to close care gaps at scale.

Leadership recommendation: Make sure your quality committee is tracking health access improvements linked directly to LHD and CBO collaboration.

5. Extending Infrastructure Without the Spend

The physical footprint of a health system remains important. But to truly impact population health, systems must reach into neighborhoods, where social conditions drive up to 80 percent of health outcomes. Here, LHDs shine. They know which zip codes lack housing, food or clean water. By aligning with their initiatives, health systems can extend their impact without investing in entirely new infrastructure. Shared screening tools and integrated data systems are early innovations with great promise.

Leadership recommendation: Include upstream social infrastructure in capital and strategic planning discussions. Look for alignment with existing public health investments.

6. Collaboration That Pays Off

Too often, health systems duplicate services—like maternal health outreach or immunizations—that LHDs already provide. This overlap is inefficient and costly.

Instead, shared service models can unlock better ROI. In Pittsburgh, community paramedicine programs are reducing unnecessary 911 calls. In California and D.C., home visit programs and student-run clinics meet health needs while reducing expensive ER visits.

Leadership recommendation: Ask leadership to inventory community-facing programs and identify opportunities for shared services with LHDs and CBOs.

7. Workforce of the Future

The healthcare workforce shortage is a strategic risk. Traditional recruiting isn’t enough. LHDs, through relationships with local colleges and training pipelines, offer a path to a more diverse, community-rooted workforce. From New York’s Community Health Worker Institute to North Carolina’s Healthy Opportunities Pilot, these partnerships train mission-driven professionals to deliver culturally relevant care, improving outcomes and reducing costs.

Leadership recommendation: Encourage formal partnerships with public health departments and local institutions to build workforce pipelines aligned to system priorities.

8. Value-Based Care Depends on Community

Ultimately, no health system can succeed in value-based care alone. The biggest drivers of health—food, housing, education transportation—are rooted in the community. That’s where LHDs and CBOs already operate, with infrastructure, trust and reach. In Oregon and Massachusetts, integrated partnerships have led to measurable reductions in admissions and increased shared savings. The evidence is clear: systems that go it alone will struggle. Those that co-lead with the community will thrive.

Leadership recommendation: Ensure population health metrics include social determinants and that LHD partnerships are central to strategy and reporting.

Leadership’s Role: Stewardship Beyond the Hospital Walls

For too long, health system leaders have viewed public health as peripheral. In today’s environment, that mindset is a liability. LHDs are not external stakeholders—they are strategic partners. Boards must lead by integrating these relationships into risk management, advocacy, equity, workforce development, and value-based care strategy.

Ask at your next meeting:

• Are LHDs part of our strategic planning?
• Are we measuring the impact of these partnerships?
• How are these relationships improving both mission and margin?

The future of healthcare is already here—and it’s rooted in community. Boards that embrace this shift will guide their systems to resilience, relevance and long-term success.