HAP History

MISSION: The Health Access Partnership (HAP) is a collaborating group of individuals and organizations committed to assuring 100% access to quality health care in Polk County.

VISION: : HAP is committed to create an integrated, comprehensive, coordinated health care system ensuring access for the uninsured of Polk County.

HAP grew out of the Healthy Polk 2010 planning process which identified access to quality health services as one of the six strategic areas that if addressed successfully, would have a significant impact on health and quality of life in Polk County. A number of community organizations came together to identify strategies to address access gaps, obtained grant funding to implement programs and shared responsibility for the implementation and oversight of the projects.

Initiatives that started with HAP and continue in permanent institutional homes include:

  • Relocation and expansion of La Clinica de la Esperanza to a location provided by Des Moines University to better serve the primary health care needs of Latino families.
  • Professional cultural competency education focused on language barriers.
  • Professional medical interpretation training programs at Des Moines Area Community College and area hospitals and expanded use of those services.
  • Neighborhood Health Initiative, a cadre of culturally diverse Community Health Advisors.
  • Established the Community Access Pharmacy, a community-based, non-profit pharmacy.
  • The Health Care for Kids Coalition which has been instrumental in expanded health insurance enrollment in Medicaid and hawk-I insurance programs in Polk County.
  • Voluntary Provider Network of the Polk County Medical Society, volunteer specialty physician provider network.

HAP was at first the dynamic ad hoc partnerships that generated these additions to the Polk County health care safety net. As HAP's grant-funded projects incubated and found permanent homes, the ad hoc group founded the non-profit organization, HAP, and incorporated in order to institutionalize the high-energy, collaborative dynamic that produced system-wide responses to access gaps. The HAP board now includes individuals who participated in the ad hoc HAP as well as individuals from organizations whose participation is deemed essential to continued high-level and strategic action.

HAP continues to identify barriers to health care access for uninsured and underinsured individuals in Polk County and to provide a forum where stakeholders can come together and develop solutions.