Everyone in health IT is talking about “population health.” The focus is clearly shifting toward more accountability for healthcare outcomes, but what does this new buzzword actually mean for healthcare providers in population health management?
Population health was defined by David Kindig and Greg Stoddart as “the health outcome of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group.”
Most healthcare executives surveyed by the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University didn’t necessarily adhere to that specific definition, but generally, they believe the term defines the opportunity for health care systems, agencies and organizations to work together in order to improve the health outcomes for communities.
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Here are 10 different definitions of the term given out of the 37 surveyed, according to HIT Consultant:
Wayne Brackin – Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, Baptist Health South Florida
“My definition is practical. You need to define the population and decide what it is you’re going to manage and what doctors are needed. To be more specific, let me give you an example. A partnership was created with Florida International University College of Medicine and Baptist Health South Florida/South Miami Hospital to care for 100 disadvantaged families in a defined neighborhood adjacent to the hospital. It is a defined population, there are identifiable needs that can be measured and a combination of providers from the medical school and the hospital will manage the families. That is a working definition of population health management.”
Brian Churchill – Director of Clinical Content and Decision Support, Peacehealth
“The goal of population health is to improve the quality of care and outcomes while managing costs for a defined group of people. The defined group of people and the health management interventions can be identified by demographic differences, health needs such as chronic diseases or disabilities, or the health needs of the underserved.”
Dr. Kenneth Cohn – CEO, Healthcare Collaboration
“To me, population health involves the health of the community; it implies wellness promotion as well as the treatment of new and chronic illnesses throughout the care continuum. It also implies improving the health of people previously undermanaged, such as the poor in terms of conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer.”
Gigi Desouki, MHA – Founder/CEO, Wellness On Wheels, Inc.
“Individual responsibility for physical, mental, spiritual and social health. When each person takes control of his or her health, it reflects on our families and society as a whole.”
Jack Friedman – CEO, Providence Health Plan
“Population health is the acknowledgement that the goal of all health system stakeholders is to do the most good for the most people at the least amount of cost. It requires a primary care centered model that incentivizes all providers to measure their clinical performance at the population level, and it requires interface between public and private institutions along with local community engagement. Population longevity and broad values around quality of life are the ultimate measures of success and performance.”
David Harlow – Principal (Attorney & Consultant), The Harlow Group LLC
“’Population health’ is both a means and an end. The goal is to improve the collective health status of the population at large in a given geographic area. That goal can only be accomplished through a combination of (1) behavior change, which has to be promoted in a tailored manner, using an array of appropriate tools — not only through traditional health care channels — to different subsets of the population (chronically-ill elders, new moms, engaged patients, millenials, baby-boomer weekend warriors, etc.), and (2) evidence-based medicine focused both on prevention and treatment of injury and disease and on improving function and happiness for the individuals who make up the population.”
Jay Higgins – Senior Director of Network Strategy and Surgical Program Development, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
“Population health is keeping people healthy in a coordinated fashion for better clinical outcomes at a lower cost. It is a ‘proactive’ solution (with personalized care and a focus on wellness) in an industry that has thrived on being ‘reactive’ (delays in treatment resulting in sicker patients, ordering unnecessary tests and sending patients to emergency departments due to primary care access challenges).
Dr. Larry Mullins – President and CEO, Samaritan Health Services
“Some would define it as determining the health of a defined group or population using health care modifiers to help make that determination. An easier answer might be just taking care of our family, friends and neighbors on a larger scale.”
Bonnie Panlasigui – Chief Administrative Officer, Alameda Hospital
“We are entering a population tsunami. For example, California will be one of the first ‘minority majority’ states in the country. How we respond to diversity in the population is key … the social inequities are the social determinants of health that impact pre-hospital chronic disease management, post-hospital surgery outcomes and readmissions — all factors that have an operational impact on a hospital.”
Barry Ronan – President & CEO, Western Maryland Health System
“Population health involves transitioning care delivery to a model that is value based which includes focusing on better case management of those patients with multiple co-morbidities, partnering in care delivery with other providers, including previous competitors, better managing overall utilization and caring for patients in the most appropriate setting, not necessarily acute care.”
Photo: Flickr user Matthew Field
