Empowering Healthcare Improvement with the Community Needs Assessment

With President Obama’s second inaugural speech calling for a reduction in rising healthcare costs, the need for reassessment of health and social service delivery in the physician’s office, medical homes, accountable care organizations, urgent care/retail center, community clinics, hospital, health system and COMMUNITY ring louder.  For the good news, the Journal of American Medical Association recently published a study demonstrating that quality improvements within the community helped reduce hospitalizations and readmissions for the Medicare population.

With the help of CMS funded Quality Improvement Organizations (QIO), community wide interventions were coordinated between hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, physicians, hospice organizations and senior centers, resulting in roughly 5.7% reduction in hospitalizations and readmissions for fourteen diverse areas.

And while it is critically important to continue the investigation and sharing of best practices for hospitalization and readmission reduction, I was also intrigued by Ted Eytan’s recent post, Pioneering Idea: Your Patient’s Community Health Needs Assessment on the Desktop.  Reminiscing about his ‘community oriented primary care’ instruction in medical school, he introduces a new community health assessment platform available online at http://www.chna.org along with his thoughts about how to utilize it.  As a futurist, he suggests that information could be integrated into a patient’s medical record for analysis and discussion.

With ten Community Oriented Primary Care Centers currently administered by Parkland Health & Hospital System, I began to wonder if having this type of data available for patient discussion would be beneficial?  Already fluent in patient registries and predictive analytics for increased prevention and better outcomes, this sounds like the perfect storm for the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation.

And for those remaining physician practices, accountable care organizations, medical homes, hospitals and healthcare networks delivering healthcare on a daily basis, could this information be made available to patient and provider alike on one’s website, app, iTriage – or better yet, a game created to crowdsource ideas for improving community status?

As Ted aptly puts it, morphing from a health advocate to a “health activist” requires innovative ideas like the one above in order to, one day, become part of a human development system, designed to help all people achieve their life goals through optimal health of the individual, family, community and society.

Physical Inactivity (Adult)

This indicator reports the percentage of adults aged 18 and older who self-report no leisure time for activity, based on the question: “During the past month, other than your regular job, did you participate in any physical activities or exercises such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise?”. This indicator is relevant because current behaviors are determinants of future health and this indicator may illustrate a cause of significant health issues, such as obesity and poor cardiovascular health.

 

Principle Healthcare Associates is an expert resource and dedicated advocate for Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant, Physician and Healthcare Executive job seekers. With many years of recruiting experience, we deliver strategies to help clients identify diamonds in the rough and candidates that stand head and shoulders above the competition.

Contact us at PHA email and be sure to visit us at PHA Website

Dreaming of Healthcare Collaboration

In preparation for the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, we are once again reminded about the inequities lurking in healthcare service delivery.  Numerous studies from Health Affairs to Forbes cite the lack of parity between services rendered and outcomes for individuals of different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic status.  In other words, while so much has changed…so many things remain the same.

For the good news, we have the ability to change this phenomenon.  And, it’s in plain sight, at the tip of our fingertips.  Collaboration – amongst payers, providers, employers, third party vendors and most importantly, patients – is the key.

Engagements are under way to redesign personal and electronic health records for improved interoperability and increased utilization.  Major advances are being made with respect to the development of apps and gadgets for personal data capture, analysis and sharing.  And while these are positive steps in a long journey, what value does this information have in silo?  Definitely not as much, so it is encouraging to learn about the steps that Dr. Dirk Stanley has taken to do something about it.  Though his approach does not engage patients directly, he is employing low tech – a wiki – to share order sets with other providers – in order to deliver high quality, safe, affordable care.

And as individual provider collaboration continues to advance, so too does the flow of communication between providers and payers.  As noted by the announcement of 100+ new ACOs, these groups are finding new ways to manage cohorts of patients successfully.  While creativity and innovation have spurred change across provider, payer, vendor and government processes and technology, the commencement of a second inauguration will prove telling in the continuing healthcare evolution.

With growing success in management of chronic disease for the Medicare population, is it not time to stretch collaboration to our communities in order to address true population health management for the uninsured and Medicaid enrollees?  By enlarging the scope of determinants from a medical home to a medical neighborhood, two separate projects have recently been announced by the Department of Health & Human services.  While the American Academy of Family Physicians subsidiary, TransforMED, will work with VHA hospitals and affiliated primary care & specialty practice physician groups, Rutgers University will be working with low income individuals to help them navigate social assistance and identify a medical home.

As mentioned previously, keeping healthy is the most important job of one’s life.  And with access to a connected system of care, individuals can experience not only improved care, but better health – which is nothing less than a dream for all.

Principle Healthcare Associates is an expert resource and dedicated advocate for Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant, Physician and Healthcare Executive job seekers. With many years of recruiting experience, we deliver strategies to help clients identify diamonds in the rough and candidates that stand head and shoulders above the competition.

Contact us at PHA email and be sure to visit us at PHA Website

Digital Health 2013: Innovating Partnerships for Better Care

With the kick-off of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, digital health was found to play an increasingly prominent role.  From panel discussions to product launches, there was a veritable feast for the eyes and ears.  During his opening address for the 2013 CES Digital Health Summit, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, highlighted the work of the military’s pioneering use of digital health.  A panel discussion with heavy hitters Arianna Huffington and Dr. Deepak Chopra followed to showcase devices for monitoring everything from sleep patterns to genetic sequences.  And while it was encouraging to see 7-8 subsequent presentations with physician moderators and panelists, one still has to wonder if this venue is successfully aligning consumer, physician and a multitude of third parties through innovation?

In other words, during this – the second largest trade show in the U.S. – are these companies missing opportunities to conduct market research for physician and healthcare delivery ecosystem data needs and educate regarding future implementation of technology that would forge stronger relationships with their patients?  Given that this target market is not typically found at the CES Digital Health Summit, why not take the discussion to them?  As TEDMED discovered, streaming live presentations at participating academic facilities fosters engagement and collaboration.  And like many others, physicians seek value in exchange for their time – so what better way to establish this critical component than by partnering for pilots to determine efficacy and validity of these trailblazing technologies?

Last but not least – with patient engagement topping the list of stage 2 meaningful use requirements, savvy hospital, healthcare system, ACO and medical home participants should seek opportunities to align with physicians interested in exploring ways in which to utilize one of these many forward thinking gadgets for better patient experiences.

http://mobihealthnews.com/19784/slideshow-health-devices-that-launched-at-ces-2013/

Principle Healthcare Associates is an expert resource and dedicated advocate for Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant, Physician and Healthcare Executive job seekers. With many years of recruiting experience, we deliver strategies to help clients identify diamonds in the rough and candidates that stand head and shoulders above the competition.

Contact us at PHA email and be sure to visit us at PHA Website

Cliff Diving for Healthcare Innovation

Ringing in the new year brings a time for reflection on the past and preparation for the future.   After looking at the first Recruiting for Healthcare Jobs blog post in 2012, I am reminded that significant strides in healthcare innovation remain.  While the previous year culminated in progress, metrics and transparency for value-based purchasing and consumer sentiment are poised to have a more profound impact on health system operations going forward.  In order to rise to the challenge, hospitals and healthcare systems should embrace healthcare innovation.

While innovation is typically discussed in reference to process or technology development, a more strategic view might encompass the following continuum:

Innovation in Healthcare Collaboration

1. Develop partnerships with key constituents in the community to help manage high risk patients
2. Find new ways to collectively address social determinants that negatively impact community health
3. At the most fundamental level, solicit new avenues for engaging patients in their health care 

Innovation in Health Delivery Process

1. Focus on eliminating variation, improving safety and quality, while also enhancing the patient experience in the inpatient admission, discharge, transition and outpatient visit processes
2. Develop new services and care delivery mechanisms to keep patients healthy

Innovation in Technology

1. Implement technology that supports your collaboration, process improvement and patient engagement efforts while continuing to protect and enhance the quality of the patient experience

Innovation in Environment

1. Create a modern therapeutic environment with a corporate culture focused on compassion and quality customer service

And, as the President of the Federation of Hospitals aptly put it, since “lawmakers chose to rob hospital Peter to pay for fiscal cliff Paul”…wouldn’t it be better to dive into innovation rather than be pushed?

Principle Healthcare Associates is an expert resource and dedicated advocate for Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant, Physician and Healthcare Executive job seekers. With many years of recruiting experience, we deliver strategies to help clients identify diamonds in the rough and candidates that stand head and shoulders above the competition.

Contact us at PHA email and be sure to visit us at PHA Website