Community Conversations Summary
Rhode Island Foundation: Hospital Merger Conversations Report Project Summary In order to gain additional community input and insight on the Lifespan/Care New England Hospital Merger, the Foundation partnered with Health System Merger Community Input Committee members and Cortico/Local Voices Network (LVN) to host facilitated conversations in small groups, discussing the proposed Integrated Academic Health System and generating feedback for the committee to consider. The Foundation used Cortico/LVN’s conversation process, data capture, and analysis to support a deeper community input process on the merger. The forums took place between September 20th - October 11th, beginning with a 2.5 hour facilitator orientation that introduced Committee facilitators to the LVN facilitation process and conversation guide and gave them the experience of participating in a demo conversation that also became a recorded part of the input. Conversation facilitators asked questions connected to the following topics:
• Personal experience connected to hospitals • Hopes and concerns for the upcoming merger in RI • Vision for a successful merger • Questions and takeaways for hospital administrators and other state decision-makers
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