What began as an effort to improve healthcare access in Memphis is now expanding across Tennessee, bringing preventive care and chronic disease support to more underserved communities.
The United Health Foundation has committed $4 million to expand a Memphis-born health initiative designed to improve access to preventive care and chronic disease support in underserved communities across Tennessee.
This investment will allow the University of Tennessee Health Science Center to expand its TennesseeCares Health Hubs network from five locations to 13 by the end of 2027.
The model, started by Dr. James Baily, executive director of the Tennessee Population Health Consortium and TennesseeCares Health Hubs, began in Memphis and Shelby County and has since
expanded into rural West Tennessee communities.
According to UTHSC, the program has served more than 4,000 people through more than 20,000 visits since launching in 2022.
"This is really an example of partnerships and people coming together to help people that are disadvantaged in the communities of Memphis, and now increasingly in rural communities," UTHSC Chancellor Peter Buckley said.
Buckley said the program's expansion will rely on partnerships the university has built across Tennessee with healthcare systems and community organizations. Rather than replicating the Memphis model exactly, he said each health hub will be adapted to meet the needs of the community it serves.
'Personal health coaching should be the norm'
One primary goal of this initiative is to provide services that both UTHSC and UHF felt that all areas should have already had access to, but do not.
"We really think that personal health coaching should be the norm for every healthcare system. And everyone should be able to access those," said Baily. "We need preventative services around diabetes education, diabetes prevention, support for weight loss, weight management, smoking cessation counseling. And the crazy thing is now, most primary care (locations) don't have all those services."
Danielle Gray, executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group and chair of the United Health Foundation, said there will be a grant that will support the nursing and health programs at UTHSC provided by the UHF aimed towards advancing career pathways focused on helping healthcare practitioners operating in rural areas.
"We want to help prepare more physician assistants and nurse practitioners, doulas, health coaches, like some of the coaches that are actually working at health hubs," said Gray. "We want to show how to help them serve in areas where care can be harder to access, and that will be a big focus of the grant funding."
Gray also said that partnering with local leaders and organizations in the areas where the hubs will be placed is the best way to go about advancing their work.
"The best solutions are designed with the people they serve," said Gray. "We take very seriously, with the partnership component, working with local leaders, mayor's office, local medicaid office...UTHSC, and nonprofits that provide the health coaches."
Joel Haley is a news reporter at The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Joel.Haley@commercialappeal.com.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: UT health science center expanding Health Hubs program across Tennessee
