About Health in Rhode Island
Health industry leaders and advocates collaborated for over a year to establish a long-term health plan for Rhode Island and identified a set of measures to track our collective progress.
A 10-year plan for a healthier Rhode Island
Convened and led by the Rhode Island Foundation, the Long Term Health Planning Committee, a group of local health and health care industry experts, collaborated for a year to set a 10-year plan for improving health in Rhode Island. The plan, Health in Rhode Island: A Long Term Vision, can be found by clicking below.
Download Health in Rhode Island
Download two-page summary (English)
Download two-page summary (Spanish)
Committee members sought to identify the most pressing needs and commit to state-level coordination and institutional decision-making that will address those needs over the long-term. In doing so, the group developed – and each member has endorsed – a vision, set of goals, guiding principles, priorities and associated strategies.
Vision and priorities
Our vision: Rhode Island is the healthiest state in the nation. All Rhode Islanders:
- Have the opportunity to be in optimal health.
- Live, work, learn and play in healthy communities.
- Have access to high-quality and affordable health care.
Priorities
- Providing the most appropriate care for people in the most appropriate setting.
- Focusing upstream on root causes and investing in affordable housing, food security and transportation to address underlying inequities and influencers of health disparities.
- Improving behavioral health outcomes by focusing on access to care, coordination of care and prevention.
- Reducing wasteful spending in order to redirect resources to social determinants and improve affordability.
- Ensuring sustainability, accountability and oversight of the group’s vision and maintaining progress in key areas where Rhode Island performs well.
Evaluation framework
The committee identified an evaluation framework and a set of nearly 40 indicators, in partnership with Healthcentric Advisors, that this site is tracking to help benchmark, measure progress, and drive local strategies and tactics. These indicators, and this site, will help identify health and health care inequities, and the indicators have been aligned to each of the plan’s priorities.
Through the data presented on these pages it is apparent that Rhode Island is making great strides in improving the health of our residents. On several health-related indicators, Rhode Island is a national leader. Yet repeatedly across the measures we observe persistent and significant disparities by race, ethnicity, and income.
In addition to these indicators, the committee will also monitor the Rhode Island Health Equity Measures, as they closely align with and complement the evaluation framework.