The Community Hospital Network (CHN) is a national model for tertiary and community-based provider collaboration. Through the CHN, UC Davis Health System connects community-based clinicians and patients with UC Davis clinical expertise and resources for the purposes of improving the quality of patient care and enhancing access to technologically advanced clinical services and information in local communities. The mission of the network is to expand the scope of services provided locally and strengthen community-based and rural health care delivery systems as the entry point for patient access to an expanded health care delivery system. This is accomplished through joint venture arrangements, professional service agreements, and the application of advanced telecommunications and integrated Internet-based resource programs. Telecommunications is the backbone of the network.

The CHN includes small rural hospitals, mid-sized secondary care facilities and small independent multi-hospital systems and their affiliated or hospital-owned rural clinics. The structure of the Community Hospital Network is based on a "hub and spoke" model. By developing relationships with rural and small community-based hospitals and medical communities and adjacent mid-sized secondary care hospitals, the network creates linkages among hospitals that strengthen all participants and more effectively delivers services to local residents. At the center of the "hub and spoke" is UC Davis Health System.

The hospitals relate to UC Davis Health System through a range of formal and informal arrangements that include memorandums of understanding, clinical service agreements, and program specific joint ventures. These documents describe the programs and services available to CHN hospitals and define mutual responsibilities of both parties. Joint ventures and professional service agreements are business arrangements through which specific clinical services are provided. Fifteen (15) hospitals and health systems participate in the Community Hospital Network. At present, UC Davis Health System' Community Hospital Network is the largest hospital network in Northern California

The members of the Community Hospital Network are as follows:

Formal Affiliation Agreements
Eastern Plumas Health Care District, Portola
Healdsburg General Hospital, Healdsburg
Lassen Community Hospital, Susanville
Mayers Memorial District Hospital, Fall River Mills
Oroville Hospital, Oroville
Plumas District Hospital, Quincy
Sierra Nevada District Hospital, Loyalton
Tuolumne General Hospital, California

Joint Venture Service Agreements
Briggs-Gridley Memorial Hospital, Gridley
Colusa Regional Medical Center, Colusa
Fremont-Rideout Health Group
Mercy Health System, Merced
Mercy Medical Center, Redding
Tahoe Forest District Hospital, Truckee

Ten Community Hospital Network hospital executives participate with UC Davis Health System in the Consortium of Independent Northern California Hospitals (CINCH). These hospital executives represent independent single and small multiple hospital systems that are not affiliated with a larger California-based multi-hospital system. Memoranda of understanding provide the legal framework for CINCH. The MOUs describe the programs and services available to CINCH member hospitals and define the mutual responsibilities of both parties. Members of CINCH represent hospitals that are public, district or county, and not-for-profit, community controlled (501 C3) designated.

The Consortium was organized in 1998 to provide a monthly forum for hospital CEOs to exchange best practices and information about issues that affect their rural delivery systems. Since its organization, the member hospitals have participated with UC Davis Health System in several federal and state grants. In addition to grant activities, CINCH members' hospitals and physicians have access to the UC Davis Clinical Resources Center (CRC). The CRC provides user-friendly, distributed access to authoritative medical reference sources and is the Web site through which community-based practitioners access a wide range of reference resources and patient care and practice management tools.

Educational programs distributed through Distance Education such as grand rounds, case conferences, and continuing medical and nursing education are also available to CINCH members.

UC Davis Health System works closely with Northern Sierra Rural Health Network (NSRHN). The Network brings together small rural hospitals, rural clinics, and physicians. UC Davis Health System, through the Center for Health and Technology, has collaborated with NSRHN to extend telecommunications technology to the most rural and remote regions of Northeastern California. Information about Northern Sierra Rural Health Network can be obtained from their website at www.nsrhn.org.

For more information, contact Patricia Keast, Regional Affiliations Officer, at patricia.keast@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu or (916) 734-0754.