Focus On...More Help For Your Health — New Resources For You

Health care is more than just health. A staggering fact is that 80 percent of what determines our health is not science, genetics, or biology. It’s our living environment — the choices we make every day, our physical environment, the food we eat, and many things we cannot control. Your zip code determines a lot about how you interact in the community, including how healthy you will be and how long you will live.

That’s why we’ve created the Here For You search engine. It lets you search for free or reduced-cost services based on your zip code. Need help paying for groceries? Looking for subsidized child care? In need of back to school clothes for your kids at no cost? These are some of the resources you can find on Here For You.

Health care costs in the US are high compared to other countries. While there are many reasons for high health care costs, one factor is the unaddressed social determinants of health. That means that when people don’t have access to basic needs, social services, or a healthy living environment, your health is negatively impacted.

The goal of our Here For You search engine is to ensure we’re treating you as a whole person — not just a patient — and make sure you have everything you need outside of medications and a doctor to change your health outcome. We want to give you access to resources that address all your needs.

Here For You connects people with verified social care organizations. When you visit the site, you type in your zip code, and then search for the specific service you need. It’s that simple. We wanted to give people the ability to search on their own without assistance if they want to.

But if you want assistance, we’ll help you search! You’ll have your Ryan Health care team who will work with you if you don’t want to search online for resources. And your care team will be the same all the time, so they’ll get to know your needs.

As part of this process, we have started screening our patients by asking a few questions about needs they may have, like housing, food, and clothing. We’re in the introductory phase but hope that we’ll soon have a process for screening all our patients. We’ll only do this assessment once unless you tell us that your circumstances have changed.

At Ryan Health, we believe health care is a right, not a privilege. The Here For You search engine is one more way for you to own your health. You know best what you and your family need to live better and feel better. We want you to have access to all that’s available to make that happen.

Contributed by Amy-Marie Irvine, Ryan Health Quality Improvement Analyst