A report from the Advisory Board suggests innovative partnerships among hospitals, public health agencies and community organizations can improve population health outcomes in poorer communities and generate significant savings for all parties involved.
According to a joint study by the Advisory Board and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 80 percent to 90 percent of an individual's health status can be attributed to factors other than clinical care. Physicians involved in the study pointed to specific socioeconomic conditions, such as lower income and education and lack of access to healthy food, safe housing and transportation, as the leading causes of poorer health outcomes. However, only 20 percent of physicians felt they were able to adequately address those issues.
To help hospitals and health systems build partnerships to improve health outcomes for members of the community, the Advisory Board cofounded the BUILD initiative, outlined in the report.
The BUILD initiative began by providing grants to 18 communities in 2015 to help communities and health organizations in the area construct carefully coordinated efforts to improve the socioeconomic factors plaguing each community.
The initiative outlined four key steps to promote population health management and collaboration among various organizations. Those steps include:
- Strongly engaging hospitals or health system leadership.
- Prioritizing the organization's initial focus on a subset of consistently iterated initiatives.
- Strengthening partnerships to build on each partner's skill sets, relationships and available data.
- Designing seamless screening and referral protocols.
Upon examining data gathered from the 18 communities involved in the initiative, researchers found engaging the hospital or health system's executive leadership was imperative in helping hospitals and health systems effectively secure the resources necessary for success.