The Fabulous Four Supports of Health: Vernita Frasier, Mary Dendy, Pecola Blackburn and Annika Archie. Jeremy Moseley, manager, in the middle.

As a strategy to wage life in Winston-Salem, FaithHealthNC has innovated a unique partnership.  It’s between the FaithHealth Division of Wake Forest Medical Center, the hospital’s environmental and the “care transitions” clinical team.

Annika Archie began last month as the first of two full-time and two part-time women transferring over from housekeeping to being “supports of health”—a model of community health worker empowered for early identification of vulnerable patients likely to experience trouble after hospitalization. FaithHealth will soon add another 6 or 10 part-time workers focused on vulnerable places. Their work will be guided by both hospital data and the ground intelligence of the women about the neighborhoods they know. — Gary Gunderson