HAP Achievement Awards: Pottstown Hospital

August 15, 2025

HAP's annual Achievement Awards honor hospitals and health systems for their innovation, creativity, and commitment to patient care. The Achievement Awards showcase and share member hospitals’ and health systems’ successful programs and best practices.

Pottstown Hospital received the Living the Vision Award for its innovative Street Psychiatry program, transforming behavioral health access for individuals experiencing homelessness.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The challenge:  Rising health needs among individuals experiencing homelessness demanded more coordinated, continuous care than existing systems could provide.
• Addressing the Issue:  Analysis of patient data and interviews exposed critical gaps in psychiatric and primary care access, prompting efforts to expand services beyond traditional settings.
• Taking Action:  To close critical care gaps, a multidisciplinary team brought medical and behavioral health services directly to people living on the streets, delivering care where patients are through a mobile, community-rooted model shaped by patient input.
• Results:  By 2024, psychiatric care accounted for 23 percent of all street-based health encounters—reflecting growing behavioral health needs, stronger patient engagement, and more consistent care for individuals experiencing homelessness.
• Advancing Care:  The program was built in direct response to community voices and what emerged is, in their words, "the epitome of health equity. Street Psychiatry ensures that one of the most vulnerable populations in the community has access to needed behavioral health services by removing common barriers to care."

Congratulations to Pottstown Hospital for its outstanding achievements in advancing better health, delivering better care, and lowering costs. Learn more about the project online.

Questions about the HAP Achievement Awards may be directed to HAP Member Services at (717) 561-5359.