Amy Snyder, Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences
Below is the third in our series highlighting PA Forward’s partners. Read on to find out more about our partner, their involvement in literacy, and how we can work with them to promote health literacy.
Our Partner:
The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania
Partner Profile:
The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) is the state’s leading advocate to improve the health and well-being of Pennsylvanians. HAP supports Pennsylvania hospitals and other care providers in their commitment to improve health, enhance quality, and reduce costs. Working with a variety of organizations, stakeholder groups, lawmakers, regulators, businesses, and consumers, HAP serves as a catalyst, convener, and motivator for transforming health care in Pennsylvania.
Resources for Libraries?
HAP encourages libraries to connect with their community hospital to identify partnership opportunities. A list of hospitals is available on the HAP website. When contacting the hospital, you may begin by asking for the public relations or community relations office. In addition, the consumer area of HAP’s website serves as a place to help patients become engaged and empowered, provides information on health issues impacting Pennsylvania, and provides tools for individuals to help to strengthen health care in your community. Be on the lookout for a new digital community coming out later this year.
Which Literacy & Why?
“Pennsylvania libraries, much like Pennsylvania hospitals, are vital community resources. HAP’s participation in the PA Forward project and its Health Literacy Task Force has offered opportunities for libraries and hospitals to work more closely together on health literacy and other important community health initiatives,” says Jennifer Collins, Director of Public Affairs for HAP.
How is The Hospital and Healthsystem already working with PA Forward?
HAP has been a very active participant in PA Forward activities. Along with the PA Forward Health Literacy Team it helped to raise awareness of health literacy issues by promoting October as Health Literacy Month.
HAP also created the “Engage for Health” curriculum that is the basis of a PA Forward pilot project program with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Mid-Atlantic Region. (This project was reported on earlier in The Compendium.
In addition, HAP has presented at PaLA conference sessions, and worked with PA Forward on cooperative projects for other statewide webinars and educational opportunities.
Who to Contact?:
In addition to the list of hospital contacts above, you can reach out to Jennifer Collins, (717) 561-5330 or jcollins@HAPonline.org.
Andrea Hartranft, Harrisburg Area Community College, Christie Himmelreich, Schuylkill Valley Community Library, Nicole Husbands, Indian Valley Public Library, Laura Laspee, Clymer Library, Amy Snyder, Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences