Foundations connect to spread care transition information

[caption id="attachment_314" align="alignleft" width="165" caption="Eric Coleman, MD, MPH, is an expert on care transitions in health care."][/caption]

It’s not what you know, it's who you know. 

How many times have we heard that in our lives?  The fact is, there is some truth to the latter part of this saying. “Who you know” is another way of saying connective tissue.

Connective Tissue is a term The Patterson Foundation uses to describe the intentional seeking of opportunities to introduce (or connect) individuals or organizations that may benefit from knowing each other, but who would not have otherwise met. Sometimes, the benefit is returned.

About 18 months ago, I reached out to Peter Wood at Health Foundation of South Florida to ask for advice. He graciously responded to my inquiry, and we have had numerous conversations and meetings (leveraging time while attending the same conferences) over the past 18 months.  As a result of our discussions, he scheduled a meeting among his CEO, Steven Marcus, himself and me during a break at the Florida Philanthropic Network.

Six months later, I received a call from Steven asking if The Patterson Foundation would be interested in collaborating to bring Eric Coleman, MD to Florida to speak.  After a few discussions, we thought it would be a good idea to see if Dr. Coleman was available to speak in Sarasota, Orlando and Miami.  After all, I knew from other connective tissue opportunities that several organizations in central Florida were using Dr. Coleman’s model.

The result of this thinking? We reached out to Diana Silvey of Winter Park Health Foundation  and Randy Hunt of Senior Resource Alliance to determine their interest in leading the central Florida leg of Dr. Coleman's presentation. They enthusiastically supported this effort.

So what's the result of all of these conversations and connections made? The week of January 23, The Patterson Foundation, Health Foundation of South Florida and Winter Park Health Foundation are sponsoring and organizing care transition discussions in Sarasota, Orlando and Miami by one of the preeminent experts in the field. More than 500 clinicians will be able to interact with Dr. Coleman to learn more about care transition and how to bring the benefits of his model into their communities.

…..A simple phone call to someone I had never met and a person who was willing to speak with someone he didn’t know. The result will be impact on local health care communities that could never have been envisioned.  Now that's connective tissue.