There is some exciting and innovative work being done in South Jersey by the region’s five healthcare systems – Cooper University Healthcare, Inspira Health Network, Kennedy Health, Lourdes Health System and Virtua.

These healthcare leaders – otherwise fierce competitors – have come together to address a need for better care for those confronting mental health or substance use issues.

Called the South Jersey Behavioral Health Innovation Collaborative, this unique partnership also includes NJHA and the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers.

This collaborative was born from information in the community health needs assessments that hospitals regularly perform to examine the most pressing healthcare needs facing their local area. The gaps identified in those assessments focused hospital leadership on systemic problems that made it difficult for residents to access the behavioral health and substance abuse services they needed. The results included poor outcomes for these individuals, lots of return visits to the hospital emergency room and high healthcare costs. I applaud the five CEOs who put competitive issues aside and came together to address these regional findings.

The project started one year ago, and recently we gathered to share the findings from our first year of data collection, mined by the Camden Coalition through an extensive process. We found that ED visits for behavioral health or substance abuse needs increased 30 percent between 2010 and 2014. We also found 800 individuals who had visited all five health systems, and an overwhelming majority had at least one mental health or substance use disorder. Together, those patients logged more than 31,000 hospital visits with more than $260 million in charges. That shows the power of data in identifying problems and designing solutions.

There’s been a great deal of progress in a short period of time. The collaborative’s partners and their dedicated teams are working together to share protocols and data for the greater good of the patient. They are conferencing together on patient cases for individuals that commonly visit multiple hospitals. They’re integrating psychiatric specialists in their EDs. And moving forward, they are offering supportive needs like stable housing and exploring a regional site for psychiatric emergency services.

This project shows the power of collaboration in today’s complex healthcare system, and it highlights the commitment of our members in doing what is best for their patients and their communities.