Oakland, California-based Kaiser Permanente is launching Thrive Local, a social health network meant to connect healthcare and social services providers.
The network is being enabled by New York-based Unite Us, which offers software that allows providers to refer out to social services, track outcomes and collaborate on care with community partners.
Thrive Local is scheduled to start rolling out in the summer and will be expanded to Kaiser’s entire service area over the next three years. As part of the partnership with Unite Us, Kaiser will invest in the company to help build the Thrive Local network.
Kaiser’s move is part of the integrated health system’s focus on what it calls “total health” which takes into account and social and community health needs, along with physical and mental health.
“Kaiser Permanente has long understood that total health can only be achieved through a combination of physical, mental and social care,” Kaiser Permanente Chairman and CEO Bernard J. Tyson said in a statement.
“In order to thrive, people need access to the things that are vital to health such as secure housing and nutritious food. Our unique mission to improve not only the health of our members, but also that of our communities, drives us to undertake impactful initiatives like Thrive Local to connect our communities with the services they need.”
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Thrive Local is being integrated into the health system’s internal EHR to help ease care coordination and referrals to community health resources for Kaiser’s 12.3 million members. The idea is to also offer the software resources to private, public and nonprofit community-based organizations to help magnify their impact to a broader population.
“By integrating this network into our clinical care, our members with unmet social needs will be connected to community services more efficiently,”Kaiser Permanente’s Chief Community Health Officer Bechara Choucair said in a statement.
In addition the launch of Thrive Local, the health system has already taken steps to address social health issues like housing insecurity through a housing stabilization fund, real estate investments and a partnership with nonprofit Community Solutions to tackle chronic homelessness across the country.
Kaiser has also started to fund research into the health effects of gun violence and how providers can help prevent gun deaths. Another major priority has been climate change and environmental issues, with the health system pledging to be carbon neutral by 2020.
Kaiser has also started an independent medical school that will start accepting students in 2020 and is meant to train the next generation of clinicians in larger population and preventive health skills.
Social determinants has become a particular focus in recent years as healthcare organizations look to make positive health impacts outside of the clinical space.
Another leader in the space seeking to build out networks of social and community-based services is Phoenix, Arizona-based Solera Health, which recently signed a partnership with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Institute to tackle social determinants of health nationwide.
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