IHN’s History

IHN is a highly specialized public health organization designed to leverage the common interests, resources and expertise of its members to create unified community-wide solutions to the hardest, most costly and most deadly public health problems of our time. In our role as an intermediary, we provide our members and partners with a place to convene around the common goal of increasing healthcare access, quality and affordability for the medically underserved in ways that leverage our collective resources and amplify our ability to improve patient and system outcomes.

In October 2003, the St. Louis Regional Health Commission’s report Recommendations for Improving the Delivery of Safety Net Primary and Specialty Care Services recommended that safety net providers form a permanent regional network to coordinate and integrate care to the medically underserved. This was followed by a federal grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) supporting the creation of such a network. In November 2003, administrators from the area’s largest outpatient safety net providers gathered at the first organizational meeting of the St. Louis Integrated Health Network (IHN).

Starting in 2004, workgroups were established by the IHN to plan for increased coordination and integration of safety net services. The impact has been significant. Today our membership partners and collaborators include the leaders of community health centers, hospital systems, academic medical schools, public health departments and other safety net institutions that collaborate across institutional boundaries to co-create and advance a common agenda focused on developing solutions that improve the quality, accessibility and affordability of healthcare for St. Louis’ poorest and most medically vulnerable citizens. Please explore our Priorities, Initiatives and Resources pages for more information about IHN’s role and function as a regional healthcare safety net intermediary.