Changing how we think about health and how we support healthy people & places requires different kinds of support.
Funding
Episcopal Health Foundation launched TACHI in 2020 with an $8 million commitment. Each site received a three-year grant. The first phase focused on learning about the ACH model; the second phase moved into implementation.
In 2022, St. David’s Foundation joined as a partner to support the three TACHI sites that fall within its Central Texas service area, as well as other TACHI-wide investments. In 2023, St. David’s recommitted its support. In total, St. David’s has provided $1 million in support.
Technical Assistance
The funders support the sites with access to a suite of experts available to individual sites. In 2023, each site was paired with a lead consultant who can help coordinate and guide the development of the ACH.
In turn, the consultants help guide the learning agenda and the refinement of the TACHI model.
Evaluation
Beginning with TACHI’s learning phase, Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC) has served as the external evaluator on the initiative. Housed within Georgia State University’s nationally-ranked Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, GHPC conducts evaluations to stimulate program improvement, contribute to initiative-wide learning, and assess TACHI’s impact. As the Evaluator, GHPC will conduct both formative and summative evaluations of TACHI to document how the initiative is making progress towards the stated goals as well as to capture short-and long-term outcomes of the work.
Learning
TACHI sites spent the first year learning—not only about the ACH model, but also if the model made sense for their communities. Coordinated by Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI), this phase focused on the sites learning from experts in the field and building a local team of partners. Topics centered on critical programmatic and approach-related elements of the ACH model. TACHI backbone organizations and community partners attended virtual learning sessions on a monthly basis.
As sites entered the implementation stage, the learning agenda shifted to focus on challenges and opportunities that sites were experiencing. PCCI continued to oversee quarterly virtual learning sessions, which were open to the backbone organizations and their partners. While experts in the field were called upon, more peer-to-peer learning opportunities were cultivated.
In 2023, the learning support system changed to reflect the evolution of the TACHI sites and the support needed to help them thrive. The learning audience shifted from a broad audience that included site backbone organizations and partners to the backbone organizations only. TACHI supporters and evaluators recognized the critical importance of the backbone’ organization’s role: without a strong backbone organization that fully embraced its role, we could not expect the TACHI site to reach its fullest potential.
Backbone organizations were also a constant in each of the TACHI sites; while partners may change staff, engagement level or roles, backbone organizations were always involved. Lastly, TACHI backbone organizations expressed interest in more peer-to-peer learning.
In place of a quarterly learning session, we turned to a community of practice model that is co-created with the backbone organizations.
ACH Model
Through evaluation, connection to other Accountable Communities for Health sites across the country and participation in funder and academic discussions, TACHI supporters continue to understand what ingredients are critical to creating productive partnerships. By aggregating what we learn from each site into a model format, TACHI sites and supporters alike can describe and build toward sustainable community change.
Additional Supports
EHF provides additions supports to TACHI sites on an as-needed basis to meet their individual needs for success. Specific examples are provided below:
External TACHI Site Evaluation: EHF financially supports the launch of an external evaluation of the Gregg County TACHI site to determine the impact of interventions on mitigating 911 calls, admissions to the hospital, and perceived positive impacts on patients.