Nowadays, "population health" is a huge buzz term for healthcare in the US, which I think it should be. In my Health Policy class, we have discussed a lot about what is going on for population health now in the US. Hospitals and providers are now realizing all of the factors that can affect an individual's health. By recognizing that someone's health goes far beyond just the treatment they receive in the hospital, we will work towards bettering the health of our population. In our policy class, we learned about the concept of "community centered health homes", which is a model where multiple organizations work together to better the health of individuals, such has hospitals, community organizations, and health centers. The fact that these types of models are becoming more well known goes to show how we are moving towards a healthcare system that puts more of an emphasis on population health.
Not only does focusing on population health improve the overall quality of life for individuals in a community, it can also save us money and improve the cost efficiency of our healthcare system. The hospital is the most expensive place for people to receive their care, so by putting more of an emphasis on community health centers and primary care facilities it would prevent us from spending more money than we need to be.
Part of being a manager of a healthcare organization is about seeing the bigger picture of the work you are doing. Instead of just focusing on what goes on directly in your hospital and under your supervision, you should be looking at how what you are doing is affecting the community, and thinking of ways that you may be able to better your relationships with other organizations and work together to provide better healthcare for all.
Hi Nicole,
ReplyDeleteAll very good points! Population health is becoming more and more important as we work to keep people healthy, prevent hospitalizations, and try to keep overall health spending down across the country. The Accountable Care Organization (ACO) world is expanding rapidly - both BCH and the Brigham will be entering into separate ACO's in March 2018. There is a lot of population care in this - I suggest you do a little online research to learn more!
Lifestyle habits influence a considerable amount of the overall population health. The effects of poor nutritional choices (high fat, high salt, etc), excessive caloric intake, alcohol, lack of exercise, and smoking greatly increase health costs. Should individuals who choose to adopt poor lifestyle habit(s) of their own free will pay more for their insurance and/or health care? Should healthcare organizations be penalized if individuals in their patient population, who demonstrate unhealthy lifestyles, refuse to change their habits? The challenge is to find the happy medium of cost-effective population healthcare which is fair, efficient, and which contains the ethical mix of incentives and penalties.
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