Maryland Faith Health Network
Organizing and aligning resources in the faith and health care communities to care for the sick
Maryland hospitals are taking a more active role in helping members of your community stay healthy. One way to leverage these changes on behalf of your congregants/members and ministries is to join the Maryland Faith Community Health Network.
The Maryland Faith Health Network started as a free pilot project with LifeBridge Health based on the successful Congregational Health Network program from Memphis TN where hospitals and trained volunteers in faith communities work together to better serve ailing members. After three years, these partners have built the necessary infrastructure for impactful, deep and mutually beneficial partnerships between the faith community and hospitals.
Description of the Network
- Congregations and hospitals first enter into an agreement with the Network, appoint an appropriate contact person and prepare their respective institutions to participate in the Network with support from their peers and our staff and consultants as needed.
- Then, when congregants are admitted to a Network hospital, the hospital can ask if they’d like their congregation to be notified. If the person grant’s permission, the hospital representative will contact the congregation’s representative to inform them that the congregant is in the hospital.
- Finally, when the congregant goes home, the congregant and representative will have a single point person at the hospital to contact to resolve any issues, questions or complications.
Our pilot demonstrated that these types of partnerships are feasible, measurable and impactful. Now in the post-pilot phase, we are sharing what we have learned and encouraging the expansion of this Network to additional hospital systems throughout the state.
Resources to learn more:
- Maryland Faith Health Network Informational Packet
- Articles about the MFHN
- Pilot Network Memorandum of Understanding
- Pilot Congregations with signed MOU’s
- Baltimore City Council Resolution
- County Council of Baltimore County Resolution
- County Commissioners of Carroll County Proclamation
- Maryland Faith Health Network Toolkit and Training Materials
- Evaluation of the Maryland Faith Health Network Pilot (Oct 2015-Oct 2017)
