YNHH awarded for its Medical-Legal Partnership Project

The Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) and Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) has awarded Yale New Haven Hospital the 2024 Connecticut’s Hospital Community Service Award for their Medical-Legal Partnership Project.

On June 13, DPH Commissioner Manisha Juthani, MD, presented the annual award, which recognizes a hospital or healthcare system that has made an outstanding contribution to its community.

The Medical-Legal Partnership Project (MLPP) started in 2013 as a collaboration between YNHH and the Center for Children’s Advocacy (CCA). It has since expanded to include other medical-legal partnerships, in collaboration with Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School.

The YNHH-CAA Medical-Legal Partnership Project aims to improve health outcomes by addressing the health inequities affecting vulnerable children and youth and exacerbated by race and ethnicity. The program focuses on legal areas related to children’s health, such as housing, educational entitlements, disability rights and Medicaid advocacy. To date, there have been over 3,000 referrals to the MLPP, which is funded by Yale New Haven Health and the Wiggin and Dana law firm.

“We are very proud to receive this award that acknowledges and celebrates our commitment to supporting our community,” said Katherine Heilpern, MD, YNHH president. “Our Medical-Legal Partnership Project has successfully addressed legal needs that impact health, and in so doing has improved health outcomes of more than 4,000 individuals in the communities we are privileged to serve.”