Vermont Accountable Communities for Health (ACH) Peer Learning Lab Report

The state of Vermont has a long history of investing in the health of its population. With a $45 million federal State Innovation Model (SIM) grant, the Vermont Health Care Innovation Project (VHCIP) funded proposals to improve health care delivery, develop health information technology, and to test new models for paying providers.

With guidance from the Population Health Work Group, state leadership chose to explore their investment through the Accountable Communities for Health (ACH) model and partnered with the Prevention Institute and the Public Health Institute’s Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL) to advance this critical work.

See the Vermont Accountable Communities for Health (ACH) Peer Learning Lab Report. Additional materials include the ACH Peer Learning Lab Curriculum, the ACH Peer Learning Lab Curriculum Appendix, and the ACH Peer Learning Lab Evaluation Report, available here.

The PHIL team worked in partnership with the State of Vermont in the creation and support of a Learning Laboratory that included ten communities across the state. The Lab worked with the communities to test the Accountable Communities for Health (ACH) model while increasing community capacity and readiness across the model and its framework consisting of nine Core Elements. The ACH Peer Learning Lab utilized in-person and distance learning methods to support peer learning, as well as community facilitation to support each community’s development over a span of eight months.

PHIL worked with a small core working group comprised of local facilitators and state representatives over the course of eight months to co-design the Learning Lab. This group designed relevant learning experiences for participating communities, and built local design and facilitation capacity to support project sustainability after the term of the consultant contract. PHIL uses a variety of innovative approaches including the Art of Hosting, design thinking, graphic facilitation, participatory leadership, and systems thinking to co-design approaches that foster innovative thinking and relationships to drive more effective population health outcomes.

A tailored curriculum and suite of appendix resources were developed in response to each individual ACH site assessment. They were rooted in a systems perspective and the nine Core Elements and delivered in partnership with the ACH local facilitators.

Originally published by Vermont Accountable Communities for Health