For years the South Dallas neighborhood, located near the Texas city's downtown, has ranked as one of the leaders in Dallas County in all the wrong categories.

The predominantly African-American population has consistently experienced one of the county's highest rates of unemployment, poverty and lack of health insurance.

The area also has had one the county's highest rates of death from breast cancer. Nearly 40% of area women with breast cancer received their diagnosis in a late-stage of their disease, according to a 2015 Susan G. Komen study.

The disparities set off alarm bells at Parkland Health & Hospital System, which is putting money and time into addressing the area's poor health outcomes.

Parkland has partnered with the CMS since 2017 as part of a five-year, $4 million initiative aimed at finding ways to better connect patients identified as having unmet social needs with community resources.

That work led the system to focus on breast cancer broadly, and in September it was one of 10 health systems selected to take part in a yearlong initiative being led by the American Hospital Association.

Each participating hospital receives $10,000 and guidance from subject matter experts and technical support, and will file a report on their findings near the end of the year. The Aetna Foundation provided financial support. In studying breast cancer care and access, Porsa said, the AHA initiative will provide the tools that will allow Parkland to address the other health inequities that exist throughout the community.

The medical center's housing effort began five years ago when the system entered into a partnership with a local housing organization and other community groups to invest in 30-day, temporary housing for homeless patients who needed a stable place to recover after being discharged from the hospital.

The system then bought a 20-unit apartment complex to provide patients experiencing housing instability with a permanent place to stay. Facility residents also have access to an on-site case coordinator as well as a primary-care clinician.

The health system's third housing investment was buying a motel and converting it to provide additional temporary housing for discharged homeless patients, a service more commonly known as medical respite.

Read the full article about testing interventions by Steven Ross Johnson at Modern Healthcare.