• What We Do

The Value of Membership in WNC Health Network

WNC Health Network is an alliance of hospitals working together to improve health and health care western North Carolina. 

For more than 20 years, our member hospitals, public health partners, and staff have joined together to achieve excellence in community health improvement through collaboration, innovation, and best practice.

Together, we contribute to strong care systems and healthy and thriving communities:

  • We align and connect key partners for greater impact
  • We strengthen regional and local capacity with a focus on measurable results
  • We promote a culture of excellence and innovation

The Board of Directors brings together all hospital leaders in the region for collaborative advantage. The board boosts regional connectivity, through shared staff, cross-facility collaboration, and meaningful change that is in the best interest of WNC.

The following are examples of current efforts of the Network:

Strengthen the Collaborative Improvement Process

WNC Healthy Impact is a partnership and coordinated process between hospitals, public health agencies, and key regional partners in western North Carolina, working towards a vision of improved community health. We are working together locally and regionally on a community health improvement process to assess health needs, develop collaborative plans, take coordinated action, and evaluate progress and impact.

We’ve been doing this together successfully for over 6 years, becoming a national leader in the field. Now we’re going deeper to sustain community health improvement by helping hospitals and their partners achieve measurable impact:

Focus on Results

Results-Based Accountability™ (RBA) is a disciplined, common-sense approach to thinking and acting with a focus on how people, agencies and communities are better-off for our efforts. RBA helps hospitals achieve the Triple Aim and shift from volume to value. WNC Health Network embraces this framework and principles of co-design to support our partners in “getting to results.”

We use Clear Impact Scorecard to track progress, which supports the RBA framework, making it easy to collect, visualize, and respond to complex community health data. It gives the ability to share real-time information with community members, partners, leaders, and funders about how they are improving the health of their communities.

Through WNC Healthy Impact, all hospitals and their public health partners can access tailored RBA training and coaching; scorecard licenses and development (including the electronic Hospital Implementation Strategy); and scorecard training and technical assistance.

Contribute to Specific Regional Priority Issues

Behavioral Health

WNC Health Network supports hospitals and their partners to create a western North Carolina where residents with behavioral health needs have access to quality mental health and substance use services and where hospital staff are safe and able to provide appropriate care for people with behavioral health needs.  We offer our skills and connections to support regional and local efforts to address behavioral health.

Access to Care

WNC Health Network supports increasing access to care in WNC in a variety of ways, including an annual Resident Recruitment Job Fair in partnership with MAHEC.

Support Hospital and Partner Connectivity

Connecting hospitals is core to WNC Health Network’s strategy, so that we can strengthen health and healthcare together. For example:

  • Bug Club is a cross-facility group where members share best practices and emerging issues in disease control, ensuring that each facility’s Disease Control and Infection Prevention staff are better equipped to keep patients and the region safe.
  • In partnership with MAHEC and others, we lead an annual Rural Health Symposium where diverse professionals connect and learn in this primarily rural region of WNC.